Completely Oblivious
by AngelOfLight04
Summary: TK is back in Odaiba, and he starts to have some weird feelings for Kari, his best friend. It can't be love... Can it? She can't feel the same way... or can she? Mostly Takari, some Taiora. My first Digimon fic, so be nice. DISCONTINUED! See last chapter.
1. Is It Really You?

AngelOfLight04: Hello, to all the people reading this! As I said in the description, this is my first Digimon fic, so please be nice when you review! *WARNING* There may be some Davis-bashing but, I'm not sure yet. *Davis fans get up and leave* NO!!! WAIT!!! I said I wasn't sure yet! PLEASE DON'T GO!!!! *Fans grumble and sit down again* Ahem. Thank you. But don't say you haven't been warned! I don't want to read any nasty reviews because of Davis-bashing. Oh, by the way, if you see a (*) beside a sentence, it means that there will be an author's note on it at the end of the chapter.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Digimon. If I did, well, this story wouldn't exist, the ending to 02 would've been WAY better, and I would probably be traveling Europe right now instead of telling you this stuff.... *cough* On with the story!!!

* * *

Completely Oblivious

Chapter 1

A young girl marched quickly down the streets of Odaiba, Japan. The cool morning breeze played with her short brown hair as she walked to school. _First day back at school. Lovely. _Sarcasm spiced her mental tone of voice. She couldn't help but think about an old friend of hers from four years ago. She shook her head. No way. There was no way he was going to be in her class this year. As much as she had hoped he would be, she knew it wasn't possible. He lived in a different part of Japan. As much as she tried to stop thinking about him and convince herself that it wasn't possible, she had a gut feeling that he would be in her class.

As she neared the middle school, she looked up and the first thing she saw was a strangely familiar head of blonde hair. She blinked and did a double take. "TK?" She shook her head. She couldn't go making assumptions; there were plenty of blonde-haired people in the world, so she couldn't just assume that it was her best friend. Her eyes locked on the blonde boy, but you could hardly see any of his hair, for it was covered with a white hat. Maybe that's what caused her to think it was her old friend; he was always wearing something on his head. She passed the soccer field and locked gazes with a familiar face. A boy with spiky reddish-brown hair and goggles grinned and waved before returning to the soccer game.

She continued her march into the school, pulling a schedule from her backpack to see where her homeroom was. After several wrong turns, walking down the same hallways at least twice each, she finally found the math room. She was relieved to see that very few people were in the classroom and that she wasn't the only one who had trouble finding their first classes. Several students filed in after her, most with sagging shoulders at the thought of getting back to school from the summer holidays. She made her way to a desk in the middle of the classroom and set her backpack on the floor.

"Hey, Kari! What luck! You're in my class again this year!"

Kari turned and smirked at the boy she saw on the soccer field earlier. "I wouldn't call that luck, Davis."

At that moment the teacher walked in and instructed the students to take their seats so class could begin. Davis took a seat next to Kari and immediately began talking with some other students about soccer or something; Kari didn't bother to pay attention. The teacher began to say something about a new student and Kari's heart skipped a beat. What if the blonde boy she had seen earlier was in her class? She shook her head. _Get a grip, Kamiya. He lives in Kyoto, there's no way he's here in Odaiba. Unless… (*)_

"…So, please welcome Takeru Takaishi." Kari realized she had zoned out of most of the introduction and snapped back into reality at the name of her best friend. She realized that she had also missed the entrance of the student. He was definitely the same boy she had seen earlier… _Unless he moved back! _Kari was positive that this was her best friend of four years. Those unmistakable ocean-blue eyes confirmed that. _Wow, he's changed a lot… I'm sure I have, too, since I last saw him, but still… Wow. _Sure, they kept in touch through letters emails and occasional phone calls, but he hadn't told her that he was back in Odaiba when she last talked to him only a few days before.

"Takeru, you can take a seat next to the girl with the camera around her neck." The teacher went on.

"Please, just call me TK." He said quietly as he took his seat next to Kari and smiled. Kari's heart skipped another beat. She returned the smile and noticed how nervous she was around him. She wasn't falling for him… Was she? She mentally shook herself to her senses. _No, Kari, he is just your best friend. You're just nervous because you haven't seen him since just after your last trip to the Digital World. _

She brought herself back to reality and got into the lesson, waiting to talk to TK until after class. She smiled. TK was back in Odaiba; that was enough to keep her happy for the rest of the day, maybe even the whole year. Her best friend was here, and that's all that really mattered to her.

~*~*~*

The rest of the class flew by. When the bell rang, TK scooped up his backpack and started towards his next class. _Who was that girl? She looks so… familiar. Could she be Kari? ... No, she couldn't be… Could she? Well, her eyes are the same as Kari's; maybe it is her. _TK was relieved that she was in his next class: science. A subject he was pretty decent in compared to math. He had never failed math, in fact his grades were pretty good, but he struggled to keep those good grades. Science was at least a _little_ easy.

He took a seat behind the girl he had sat next to in math. He studied her features: her short brown hair, white and pink shirt, elbow length gloves, shorts, a pink hairpin kept her short bangs out of the way, and a silver camera hung from her neck. Of course, he couldn't see the camera, but he had gotten a good look at it before. It reminded him of Kari; she used to wear a whistle around her neck all the time. It seemed like the camera around this girl's neck had taken the place of Kari's whistle… Something clicked in his mind. _It _is_ Kari! Well, I'm pretty sure she is, anyway._

He was about to speak up, but someone tapping his shoulder made him turn. A girl with lavender hair and big glasses smiled down at him. He hadn't seen her come in, and he knew that she wasn't in the classroom when he came in. _Well, I guess that's what happens when you daydream, Takaishi. _"Hey, Yolei." He smiled. He had met her this morning on his way to school. She and a younger kid, Cody, lived in his building and he had walked to school with them.

"Hey, TK," Yolei said. She pointed to the seat next to him. "Mind if I sit with you?" The desks- well, tables, really- had two seats at each, and the seats were more like stools.

"Sure, go ahead." Yolei sat down beside him and took out her notebook. She had apparently caught him staring at the girl in front of him and he snapped out of his reverie when she slipped a piece of paper into his hand. He raised his eyebrows in question. Why did she give him a note when she could say it out loud? Class hadn't even started yet. Oh, well. He opened the piece of paper and the scribbled handwriting said: _Why are you staring at that girl?_

He quickly scratched out a reply: _I think I know her, but not from school. She's in my first class, and I think she's one of my friends from about four years ago, right about when I moved to Kyoto. I'm almost positive she is, but I don't know if she recognizes me or not. _He passed it back to Yolei and waited for her to scan the message and reply.

_Maybe she's waiting on you to talk to her. I've seen this girl around; she's pretty shy around people she doesn't know. But maybe she just wants to see if you recognize her. Talk to her! Class is about to start, and you'll probably be dying to talk to her for the next hour and a half if you don't do it now!_

TK nodded at Yolei and turned to the girl in front of him. He opened his mouth to speak but was cut off when the teacher walked in and started introducing himself. TK sighed and thought, _I forgot about how most people in Odaiba have bad timing._

~*~*~*

Yolei was right when she said that TK would be dying to talk to the girl for the next hour and a half. He kept glancing at the clock, feeling as if an eternity had passed between each glance when in reality it was only five minutes. When the bell finally rang, he felt as if a ten-ton weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He bent down to pick up his backpack, only to sit up again and find that the girl he was waiting to talk to had already gone to her next class. He closed his eyes and groaned. Yolei laughed at him. "Your gonna have to be faster if you want to talk to her, you know.

TK glared at her as they walked to their lockers to put away their books. "I see that, thank you. By the way, why are we in the same science class? I thought you were in eighth grade."

"I am," Yolei said.

"Then why are you in a seventh grade science class?"

Yolei smirked and twisted the knob on the lock on her locker. "I'm not. There was a screw-up with the class assignments this year for the seventh grade and some people got put with the eighth grade science class. Not that it matters. It's no more complex than seventh grade science, just a different book."

TK wondered why the school wouldn't do anything to fix the screw-up, but decided not to say anything about it. He just threw his science book in his locker next to his math book and reset the lock. "Well, I guess I'll see you later today, assuming that we have classes that weren't screwed up next."

"Nope, science was the only one, as far as I know. I'll save you a seat at lunch, okay?"

TK nodded. "Sure. Thanks." He turned and walked to his history class. _Great, I get to learn about dead people next._

_As it turned out, the teacher was gracious enough to let her students socialize with the people they would be stuck with for the rest of the year. TK was relieved to hear this, since he knew absolutely no one in his class. The girl he assumed to be Kari wasn't in his class this period, and he was seeing no familiar faces. He hoped that maybe some people from one of his elementary school classes would be here, but he shook his head at the thought. How in the world was he supposed to recognize anyone he hadn't even talked to in at least four years? Sure, he recognized Kari, but she was... different. In a way._

_"Hey."_

_TK looked up, embarrassed. Obviously he had zoned out enough to miss everyone getting out of their seats to congregate in small groups. "Uh, hey." He said to the boy who had addressed him._

The boy stuck his hand out. "I'm Chase."

TK took Chase's hand and shook it. "I'm Takeru, but everyone calls me TK."

Chase took a seat next to TK. "So, I haven't seen you around here before- well, I've seen a guy that looks kind of like you, but he's in high school- did you just move here?"

TK nodded. "Yeah, but I used to live here when I was younger. My mom and I moved back a couple of weeks ago. Her job caused us to move once before, only to bring us back where we started."

Chase rolled his eyes. "I know what you mean. My dad's job has made us move all over the country, and even had us move to India, only to bring us back to our original location. Where did you move from?"

"Kyoto. I lived there for four years. I had intended to visit every summer and when I was out of school, but usually it was my brother and my dad coming to visit me. Something always came up and we couldn't come visit like we planned. Oh, and you said that there was a guy that kind of looked like me in high school? That's my brother, Matt."

Chase nodded. "That explains a lot. But, I've seen him here for a few years now, and even around town a couple times. Does he not live with you?" He asked, raising his eyebrows. _Man, this kid asks a lot of questions. Oh well, I don't really mind. I was kind of expecting it._ TK thought. Then he said, "No, my parents are divorced. I live with my mom and he lives with my dad."

Chase's face turned downcast. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry into anything personal."

"No, it's alright. Don't be sorry. A lot of people know about my parents, so it's no big deal." Silence ensued. "So… Do you like sports?" Now it was TK's turn to ask questions.

Chase's attitude brightened a bit. "Yeah. I _love_ basketball!"

"Really?" This caught TK's interest. Chase nodded. "Basketball is my favorite sport! I was the captain of the basketball team at my school in Kyoto!"

Chase smiled. "So was I at my old school! You know, TK, I saw basketball sign-up sheets earlier; maybe we should sign up!" TK smiled back. He could tell that he and Chase would be friends.

* * *

Okay, I'm not too impressed with how this chapter turned out. I'm hoping that the next chapters will be better, though. As for the Author's note, I'm not sure where TK lived before going back to Odaiba. It never said anywhere in 02, so I picked a random place in Japan.

Anyway, **read and review**!!! :) I have some of the second chapter written, I'm just going to wait to get a few reviews before I do anything, though. Until next time! Bye bye birdie!


	2. Together Again

AngelOfLight04: Hello again! Thank you to all of my reviewers! I'm happy that you guys like this story! Okay, so in the last chapter, TK has a reason to believe that his best friend, Kari, is at his school. He wants to talk to her, but he is a little nervous that she won't recognize him. Yolei encourages him to talk to her, but before he can, the teacher walks in. Terrible timing, right? Unfortunately, Kari isn't in his next class, so he can't talk to her. In the meantime, TK makes a new friend named Chase, who happens to share the same love for basketball that TK does. At least _some_ things are working out all right for TK.

**Disclaimer:** Unfortunately, I do not own Digimon. If I did, well, the ending to 02 would have been waaay awesome. And this story wouldn't be here. Moving on!

Chapter 2

TK walked into the noisy lunchroom, saw the long lunch line and decided to wait for it to die down a little before he got anything to eat. As promised, Yolei saved TK a seat at a table near the back of the cafeteria. When TK approached the table, Yolei looked up from the concoction on her tray and asked, "Where were you? Got lost or something?"

TK shook his head and sat down across from Yolei. "Nah. I was looking for a basketball sign-up sheet with a friend." Yolei nodded her head in understanding. Just then, Cody set his tray down next to TK and sat down. TK grimaced at the stuff that looked like some kind of meat mixed into a substance that resembled the oatmeal he ate that morning. "What the heck is that stuff they're serving?"

Yolei took a spoon, scooped up some of the mush and sniffed it. She gagged and pushed her tray away. "I don't want to know. I think I'll buy some crackers from a vending machine outside."

Cody did the same thing Yolei did and shuddered at the stuff on his spoon. He also pushed his tray away. "I'm with you on that one." He looked over at TK. "You're not eating?"

TK shook his head. "Not after seeing what they're serving today and your reactions. I'm game for the crackers."

"So, TK," Yolei said. "Did you ever talk to her?" It took a moment for TK to figure out who "her" was, but he quickly figured out what Yolei was talking about and shook his head.

"No, she left the classroom before I could talk to her and I didn't see her again after science. She must have her third period class on the other side of the school." Yolei shrugged. "Maybe," was her answer.

Cody stared at his older friends. "What are you talking about?"

Yolei blurted out the story before TK could even open his mouth. "TK thinks that a girl in his first two classes is his best friend from, like, four years ago. He's almost positive she is, though. Almost. He's worried that she won't recognize him. So, I told him to just wing it; maybe she was waiting on him to recognize her, but she left the room before he could do anything and he hasn't seen her again." Cody's mouth formed a small "o" but no words were said.

Then the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch and telling the students to get to their next classes within the next five minutes. The three friends sighed silently, thankful for once that the bell rescued them from the uncomfortable silence. _Saved by the bell, _TK thought. He looked at the analog clock on the wall at the end of the hall. Only 1 o'clock. He decided to wait till after school to get anything from the vending machine. The concoction that was being served in the cafeteria had made him lose his appetite.

He pulled his schedule from his pocket and looked for the room number of his next class. Study hall in the library. Well, at least he could get some homework done in the library without distractions… hopefully. He found the library and walked over to an empty table in the back left corner of the library and set his stuff down on the floor next to him. He watched other students come in, some with their iPod headphones sticking out of the pockets of their jeans or jackets. TK hoped that she would be in this class with him.

A girl wearing a pink and white shirt came over to the table, set a textbook on the table and took her seat a couple of chairs over from where TK sat at the table. He snuck a couple of glances at her while she wasn't looking; pretending to be interested in doodling in is notebook when she was turned towards him. This was definitely the girl in his first two classes, so he wondered why he had not seen her come in. A closer look at her face confirmed his speculations from earlier: this was his best friend, Kari Kamiya.

The teacher in charge of the study hall called out. "Even though this is the first day back at school, that does not mean you can talk, sing, flirt or whatever you kids nowadays do. It is still study hall and it's still a library. There are other people other than the people in this class who need to use the library so there will be no talking whatsoever. You may work on homework, study for upcoming quizzes or tests, or read a book. There is no excuse for not doing something during this time."

TK took out his math book, opened it to one of the first few pages and opened his notebook to a random blank page. He ripped it out of the notebook and scribbled some words down on it, praying that he and Kari wouldn't get caught passing notes. He paused and glanced at the book from time to time, making it appear as though he was doing homework. He read the message to himself: _Do I know you from somewhere?_ TK shook his head a little. It would have to do. He folded the piece of paper up and set it down in the seat between himself and Kari, careful not to let the teacher see. It was a good thing that Kari wasn't clueless as to what was going on for she discreetly picked up the paper and carefully read it before scratching down a reply, using the same method of secrecy that TK had used.

Kari slipped the paper into his waiting palm. He continued his act as he scanned over the message. She had written: _Well, we have our first 2 classes together, if that's what you mean, but I have a feeling it's not._

TK smiled. _Not quite,_ he wrote and slipped it back onto the chair, waiting for a reply.

_I think I know you. TK Takaishi, right?_

_Yeah, that's me. Mind if I take a guess at your name?_

_ Shoot, _came the reply.

TK almost hesitated. Yes, almost. _I'm thinking… Kari Kamiya?_ _Bearer of the Crest of Light._ The last part was more of a statement, but it was all right. He knew it was Kari, and she knew it was himself.

Kari flashed a smile at him. _I was wondering when you would recognize me._

TK returned the smile. _I thought it was you and I was going to try to talk to you before class, but you know how people in this town have terrible timing. _

Kari struggled to keep from bursting out in a fit of laughter. _Weren't you supposed to come visit every summer and during breaks?_

TK sighed. _Yeah, I was. But something always came up. Usually a flight got cancelled, either me or my mom got sick, Mom couldn't get time off of work… So usually Matt and Dad were coming to see us. I wish I could have come to visit you and the rest of the Digidestined, though._

_ That's too bad. I wish you could have come, too. Things have been really boring around here since you moved and it just hasn't been the same at the Digidestined get-togethers without everyone there. _

TK turned to Kari and smiled faintly. She smiled in return. TK decided to end the conversation there, since the teacher was gradually getting closer to the table he and Kari were sitting at. He folded the note again and put it in his backpack.

He and Kari managed to get _some_ work done in what time they had left. Occasionally, he glanced at her in between math problems. Apparently she had been doing the same to him also, because once they caught each other glancing at the other and both quickly turned their heads away, blushing.

The next half hour of study hall dragged by. When the bell finally rang, TK and Kari both sighed in relief. They gathered their books and made their way to the door of the library, knowing that they still could not talk until they were in the hallway. Once in the hall, Kari grabbed TK's wrist and pulled him aside from the crowd of students. She threw her arms around him, tightly squeezing him as if he was a lifeline and she was holding on for dear life. TK laughed and hugged her back.

Kari pulled away after a few seconds. "I was trying so hard to keep myself from doing that in the middle of class!"

TK grinned and said, "I must admit, it was terribly hard for me to restrain myself."

Kari started down the hall with TK next to her. "So, what class do you have next?"

"I have PE. What about you?"

"I have history for my last class. I had my photography class third period," Kari said and TK nodded. TK stopped at his locker. "Hey, I'll talk to you after school, okay?"

Kari nodded. "Sure. See you later!" She waved and continued down the hall.

TK smiled and fiddled with the lock on his locker. _Sure is good to see Kari again. I can't believe how much I've missed her smile, her eyes… Wait, what? Am I really thinking this stuff? Come on, you know you don't like her like that. Just friends. That's all we are._

"Hey, TJ!"

TK dropped a book in his locker and turned, closing the door as he did so. A boy with dark brown, spiky hair and goggles glared at him, clenching his fists. He looked like a kid in TK's homeroom. _Is he talking to me?_

"Um… Excuse me? Are you talking to me?"

The boy rolled his eyes. "Who else? You should know better than to flirt with MY girl, CJ!"

TK furrowed his brow. "For one thing, my name is _TK_, not TJ, not CJ, _TK._ For another, I haven't been flirting with any girl. I've only talked to two girls today and as far as I know they don't have boyfriends, so you must have to wrong guy. Sorry."

The boy raised a fist, as if he were preparing to throw a punch. "I _know_ I have the right guy, 'cause I saw you hugging my girl!"

TK had no idea who "his girl" was. Then it hit him. _He must be talking about Kari. But she didn't tell me that she had a boyfriend._ "Oh, well, I didn't know Kari had a boyfriend, so I didn't think it would be a big problem for anyone."

"Uh, well…" The boy stammered. TK thought back to his first class and remembered the teacher calling him Davis. Davis continued, "We're not dating… _yet._ But, still, you have no right to be hugging or even talking to my girl!"

TK started to get annoyed with the constant "my girl" thing. Kari wasn't property, and she had a name, so why not use it? "You don't have the right to be making the rules about who talks to or even hugs Kari. And she's not property, so don't call her 'your girl', even if you end up dating her someday. Now I gotta go. I'm gonna be late." With that, TK walked off in the direction of the gym. A dumbstruck Davis just stood there, baffled that someone had actually stood up to him for the first time since he was a kid.

~*~*~*

Tai Kamiya slung his bag of soccer clothes over his shoulder. Tryouts for the team were good, and he was the team captain. As he started towards the high school's courtyard to meet his girlfriend, Sora, a beeping sound made him stop. At his waist, his Digivice was showing strange symbols on the screen. "Huh?" He just stood in the middle of the soccer field, staring at the screen. He came to a conclusion. "The Digiworld is in trouble…" He mumbled. He took off running toward the middle school, hoping that his plan would work…

~*~*~*

Kari stood outside by the school gates waiting for TK to show up. When he did, she called him over. He ran over to her and they started walking home together, since they lived only a few buildings away from each other.

"Kari!"

They turned around and saw a girl with shoulder-length red hair run toward them. TK smiled at the sight of his old friend. "Hey, Sora!"

Sora slowed down as she neared the two. She looked up at the blonde boy as it clicked in her mind how he knew her. "TK?! When did you move back to Odaiba?"

"A couple of weeks ago. I didn't tell anybody except Matt because I wanted to surprise everyone."

Sora nodded. "Well, you certainly surprised me." She shook her head. "That's not fair, TK!"

Kari was confused. "What's not fair?"

Sora continued to stare at TK. "You're taller than me! And you're, what, twelve? So not fair!" TK and Kari just laughed at Sora. She soon joined them, but abruptly stopped when she remembered why she had come to Kari in the first place. "Kari, you haven't seen your brother, have you? He was supposed to walk me home, but he didn't show up after school. I'm starting to get worried."

Kari shook her head. "I haven't seen him. Maybe he's in the school," she said, pointing to the middle school. "I have no idea why he would be, but you never know with Tai."

"I can't argue with that."

The threesome ran back into the school, through the empty halls and peeked through several doors, looking for a teenager with huge hair. Once, they came across a teacher who was just getting ready to leave. She raised her eyebrows in question at her students and a high school girl. "TK, Kari, you do know that you are quite a few hours early for school, considering it doesn't start until 8 o'clock tomorrow morning."

They all took a few steps back into the hallway, explaining that they were looking for Kari's brother before running up the stairs to search the second floor. Kari ran up the stairs so fast, she almost ran head-on into a girl with purple hair and big glasses. She felt her face turn hot. "Uh, sorry." She moved aside and allowed the girl to get by.

"Yolei?" She heard TK say. The girl, apparently Yolei, turned to the blonde beside Kari.

"Oh, hey, TK. You late for something?" Yolei asked.

"Uh, no," TK said. "Why do you ask?"

Yolei raised an eyebrow. "Well, you're running all over the school as if you're looking for something or trying to get somewhere before it ends or something like that."

Sora spoke up. "Uh, we're just looking for a friend of ours. Have you seen a tall guy with really big hair? He also has some goggles on his head."

Yolei just then noticed Sora. "I think I saw a guy in high school who matched that description. I think he's in the computer lab."

TK smiled and nodded at Yolei. "Thanks. Oh, and by the way, this is Kari and Sora," he said, motioning to each of the girls as he introduced them.

Yolei nodded. "I'm Yolei. Nice to meet you. Sorry to have to leave you on such short notice, but my mom needs help at our family's store. I'll see you guys later; maybe we can get together for a movie or ice cream or something. See ya!" She turned and disappeared down the stairs.

The three resumed their search for Tai, now heading for the school computer lab. They got there just in time to see Tai hold up his Digivice to one of the computers and say, "Let's hope this works!"

A bright light filled the room and Tai seemed to be sucked into the computer. TK, Kari and Sora stood there, shocked at what had just happened. They all found their voices at the same time and shouted:

"TAI!!!!"

* * *

Oooh, what will happen next? You may be able to figure it out, but let's just see what happens next time.... Please review!! Sayonara!


	3. Just Like Old Times

Hello again and thanks for all of the nice reviews! Here is the third chapter of _Completely Oblivious, _and I hope you enjoy! (Note: There is a little bit of Taiora romance in this, not much, but some. I still had fun writing it! :D)

**(A/N)**Okay, I was reading over the last chapter and noticed a few mistakes, which I was kind of expecting, considering it was really late when I wrote that chapter. Here is the first mistake I noticed. (This is when TK and Kari are exchanging the note in the library.) "TK returned the smile. _I thought it was you and I was going to try to talk to you before class, but you know how people in this **time** have terrible timing." That should be "town", not "time". And the other one I noticed was when Sora asked TK when he moved back to Odaiba. His reply: "A couple of weeks ago. I didn't **tall** anybody except Matt because I wanted to surprise everyone." This is supposed to be "tell". Anyway, I thought I would just clarify. :)_

_**Disclaimer:** I don't own Digimon... yet. *crickets* Okay, there is a 99.99999% chance that I will never own Digimon. But I can dream, right?_

_Remember: This (*) means that there will be an Author's note on that part at the end._

Chapter 3

"Tai…" Kari said. Sora ran over to the computer. Some program was running on it, but she had never seen such a program before. TK and Kari soon joined her and they all looked on with disbelief. Sora had a hard time believing what she had just seen. Maybe all of them were hallucinating. Yes, that was it, they all had something weird to eat and it was giving them crazy visions… Sora mentally slapped herself. _What are the chances of that happening? One in a thousand. _She thought.

"Sora? Kari?... TK?!" They all turned to see a red-haired teenager standing in the doorway. He was dressed in the high school's green and white uniform and he carried a laptop at his side.

Sora sighed. "Hey, Izzy. What brings you here?"

Izzy set his laptop down next to the computer she, Kari, and TK were gathered around. "I saw the three of you run into the school and my curiosity got the best of me so I decided to follow," Izzy said. He quirked an eyebrow. "What exactly are you guys doing here?"

"We were looking for Tai," Kari said. "We got here just in time to see him disappear into the computer."

Izzy's eyes widened. "_Into_ the computer, you say? Let me have a look." Kari moved aside and Izzy took a long look at the program on the screen. "Prodigious!"

Sora felt hopeful at that moment. "What? Do you know what happened to Tai?"

Izzy nodded. "It's simple, really. He was 'downloaded', for lack of a better word, into the computer and was transferred to the Digital World."

Sora felt her jaw drop. Downloaded? Izzy continued, "I just don't know how he did, or we could follow him in a heartbeat."

TK spoke up. "We saw him hold his Digivice up to the screen, then there was big flash of light and he disappeared."

Izzy turned away from the computer to look at TK. "Then the Digivices are the key," he said. "By the way, when did you move back to Odaiba?"

"Just a couple of weeks ago," TK said. "So, how do we get to the Digiworld? Do we just do what Tai did and hold up our Digivices to the screen?"

Izzy turned back to the computer. "Yes. I'm trying to figure out how this program was opened in the first place, so we can know how to open it for future references… Aha!" He scribbled down some letters and numbers on a scrap piece of paper and shoved it into his pocket. "Now, I'm going to need to borrow someone's Digivice and compare it to mine. Sora, would you mind if I—" He was cut off by a kid about Kari and TK's age bursting into the room.

"Hey, Kari! What's going on in here?"

Kari and TK groaned. "Please, Davis, this a bad time," Kari said. Davis didn't take the hint and just stepped farther into the room.

"Why?" Davis persisted. Sora rolled her eyes. _I don't even know this kid and he's getting on my nerves. To think that Kari and TK are going to have to put up with this for the rest of the year!_

"It's just a bad time for you to be here, Davis," TK said. "We're a little busy right now."

Davis apparently hadn't noticed TK until that moment. He glared daggers at TK. "Hey, BT, didn't I tell you to stay away from my girl?"

Kari's face turned red. "Davis, how many times do I have to tell you that I am NOT your girl?! And his name is _TK!"_

TK glared right back at Davis. "And didn't _I _tell _you_ that she isn't property, and that you should stop calling her 'your girl'?"

Sora and Izzy looked at each other with wide eyes. TK wasn't usually the type of person to tell people off, but then again, it had been four years since they had seen him, so it was likely that he had learned how to stand up for himself without his brother there to defend him.

Izzy decided to speak up before things got nasty between the three younger kids. "TK and Kari are right, Davis. This is a bad time for you to be here. We're trying to help a friend and don't want anyone else to get involved so you should go home."

Izzy addressed TK, Kari and Sora. "As I was saying before, Sora, may I borrow your Digivice?"

Sora nodded and dug the square device out of her backpack. She handed it to Izzy, watching him study it closely. "I think that the Digivices contain something that opens this Digiport- my term for this gate to the Digital World."

Davis peered over Izzy's shoulder. "What the heck is that thing? And what's the Digital World? It sounds like some amusement park. I wanna go!"

TK shook his head. "You can't. It's not like just _anyone_ can go, you have to be called there. Plus, you need a Digivice, which is what Izzy has right there."

Davis clenched his fists and muttered something under his breath, something about forcing himself in. He opened his mouth to object, but he was cut off when a blue beam of light shot out of the computer, followed by a yellow beam and a red one. The blue beam shot towards Davis and slammed into his chest. The other two flew out the door of the computer lab and down the hall.

The blue light that had hit Davis fell to the floor and the light faded away, revealing an object that looked like a miniature walkie-talkie. It was white with blue casing on the side. Davis snatched it up and showed it to the other four. "Oh, yeah? Well, what's this?"

Sora took it from Davis. "It looks like a Digivice, only a newer model."

Kari groaned again. "Tell me that we don't have to work with him."

TK sighed. "I would, but then I'd be lying. Looks like he _can_ go to the Digiworld."

A grin grew on Davis's face. "Ha! In your face, TB!"

Sora glared at Davis as she shoved it back into his hand. "Davis, it's not all fun and games. It is a big responsibility. You are now a Digidestined, meaning the Digiworld is counting on you, as well as several others, to keep it safe."

Kari nodded. "She's right. It's not a game. And I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to get my brother out of there." With that, she took her Digivice out of her pocket and held it up to the screen. Just like before, there was a flash of light and Kari disappeared into the computer.

TK stood there for a moment before he did the same. "I'm in!" The light returned and he also disappeared.

Sora turned to Davis. "Your turn… Unless you're scared." She added as an afterthought.

Davis was still trying to pull his jaw up from seeing Kari disappear, he shook his head and feigned confidence. "If Kari goes, then I'm going to!" He held up his Digivice and disappeared into the computer.

Izzy sighed. "That kid is obsessed with Kari. I hope he doesn't act that way around Tai, or he would have Davis's head." He handed Sora her Digivice. "I'll stay here in case someone comes in wondering where the random light is coming from. I'll make up an excuse and keep them out of here until you guys get back."

Sora nodded and followed the actions of Kari, TK, and Davis. The light filled the room again and she felt herself being pulled into the computer. The sensation was much different from what she was familiar with, considering the earth had opened up the first time she had gone to the Digital World and a rainbow had taken them up into the sky the second time, after the defeat of VenomMyotismon. Her vision cleared and she felt herself hang in midair for a moment before falling to the ground on top of Davis.

"Ow! Get off of me!" Davis growled from under her.

Sora climbed to her feet and crossed her arms. "Don't bite my head off. You had enough time before I came through to pull yourself up off the ground."

Kari and TK snickered. She winked at them. Davis was such a whiner.

Davis was still grumbling as he pulled himself to his feet. Sora looked at the screen on her Digivice. A blinking red dot was on one part of the screen while four other red dots flashed on another part. "Tai's this way," Sora said, starting off in one direction with the others following close behind.

"So, these things are a GPS, too?" Davis asked. "Awesome! I don't have to call my friends to get directions to their houses anymore!"

Sora bit her tongue to keep herself from snapping at Davis. He was so dense! "Davis, it isn't a GPS. It just tells you where other Digidestined are by pinpointing their location."

"Sora!" A voice called from up ahead. Sora recognized that voice and relief washed over her. "Tai!" She called.

Tai appeared through a clump of bushes with Agumon, Gatomon, Patamon, and Biyomon in tow. Sora ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. "I was so worried about you! You should have told me where you were going!"

Tai hugged her back. "Sorry, I didn't have much else on my mind other than getting here."

"It's okay, just tell me next time." She gently pulled away and turned to Biyomon, who flew into her arms. "Sora! I missed you so much! I'm so glad you're here!" The little pink bird said. Sora hugged her friend. "I missed you, too, Biyomon."

"Kari!" "TK!" Sora looked over to see Patamon and Gatomon rush into their partners' waiting arms. She looked at Davis and almost fell to the ground laughing. She would have fallen if Tai hadn't caught her and held her upright, though he was having a hard time standing up himself. "D-Davis… y-your face!" He said in between spasms.

Kari and TK turned around to see what was so funny and all they saw was Davis's jaw hanging down as far as his shoes and his eyes as wide as a soccer ball. They both struggled to keep in their laughter, but to no avail. This time, the two actually fell to the ground, holding their sides. Davis shook his head and growled at everyone. "Hey! What's so funny?! Did I miss something?"

Tai spoke for everyone when the laughter subsided. "Yeah, you missed the look on you face when the Digimon showed up!"

Davis crossed his arms. "Humph! Well, it's not everyday that you see cats, chickens, and dinosaurs talk! And you especially don't see pigs fly!"

Patamon shouted at Davis from on top of TK's head. "Hey! I am not a pig!"

TK smirked. "I got this lecture a long time ago. Never call Patamon a pig."

Gatomon jumped down from Kari's arms and looked towards the sky. "We're not safe out in the open." She turned and ran back into the bushes from which she, Tai, and the other Digimon came from. "This way! Hurry!"

They ran through the forest until they came to a cave. They hurried to the back of the cave and came to a stone that resembled a table. It had a red and orange egg on it, with a spike on the top and the Crest of Courage emblazoned on it.

Tai walked behind the stone and said, "This is some sort of DigiEgg, though I don't think a Digimon comes from it. I believe it's a different kind, but I have no idea what purpose it serves. I tried to move it, since it has the Crest of Courage on it, you know, I thought it was supposed to be mine. But it won't budge. I want you guys to try it." Tai looked at Davis. "But…"

Sora spoke for Davis. "He's a Digidestined." Tai raised an eyebrow in question. "A Digivice came out of the computer," she continued. "And that's how he was able to come here. There must be some purpose for him getting one, but we don't know what."

"We do," Agumon said. "It's a new evil. A human showed up not long ago and started capturing Digimon to make his slaves."

Patamon continued. "He calls himself the Digimon Emperor. He has these flying black rings that control Digimon and make them go berserk. Once a Digimon is captured by one of those rings, they are at the mercy of the Digimon Emperor and only he can remove them."

"He does it all with this thing he calls a Dark Digivice," Biyomon said, shaking her head sadly.

Kari turned to Davis. "Show them yours." Davis dug around in is pocket and showed the device to the Digimon. They tensed up.

Gatomon growled at him. "It's a Dark Digivice! You work for the Digimon Emperor!"

Davis stuttered. "N-no! I-I don't work for anybody! This thing j-just came out of the computer!"

Tai looked at the DigiEgg. "Maybe that's what came out of this thing."

Sora turned to her boyfriend. "What?"

Tai touched the DigiEgg, but quickly pulled back when it shocked him. "The first time I tried to move this thing, three things that looked like fireflies on steroids shot out of it. One of those must be Davis's Digivice. That means that two others are still out there."

TK looked up at nothing in particular. "Come to think of it, there were two other things that came out of the computer, but we were too focused on Davis's Digivice and the Digiport to think much of it."

Tai nodded. "Then we have to find the other two Digidestined. But for now, we have to figure out whose DigiEgg this is. Everyone gets a chance to pull it, but if it shocks you when you touch it, leave it alone. We don't know if it gets strong enough to be fatal."

One by one, they tried to remove it, but no one could without getting shocked. When Davis stepped up to the stone, he almost didn't do it, but Sora could see him glancing at Kari every few seconds. Obviously, he was trying to impress Kari, so he wouldn't back down. He gripped the DigiEgg, and when he wasn't shocked, everyone's eyes widened. He started to pull on it, and he still wasn't shocked. It finally came loose after some coaxing and Davis fell onto his rear end. An orange light came out of the hole in the rock that was covered by the DigiEgg. They all looked on in wonder at the thing that was forming inside the light. It finally materialized and jumped out of the light towards Davis.

"I'm freeeeee!" The thing shouted. A closer look revealed that it was a Digimon.

"I'm Veemon! What's your name, pal?" It asked Davis, who was still on the ground and eye-level with Veemon.

"Uh… Davis." He said. He looked the Digimon over. He looked like a blue and white lizard with five fingers, long ears, and a yellow V on his forehead.

"Nice ta meetcha, Davis! Thanks for moving the DigiEgg of Courage! I've been so cramped in that place!"

"I've heard of Veemon," Agumon said. "He's a fun-loving, energetic type of Digimon who is said to bring good luck, but I thought he was a legend!"

Veemon turned to Agumon. "Nope, I'm real! I'm one of a kind and I've been under that DigiEgg for ages!"

The ground shook. Tai and Sora held onto each other for support as the shaking grew stronger. Rocks tumbled from the ceiling of the cave and at one point the shaking stopped. No one dared to move. A Monochromon tore through the ceiling of the cave and roared. Tai turned to Agumon. "You gotta Digivolve, buddy!" Agumon nodded. "I'll try."

"Agumon Digivolve to… Agumon!... Wait, what?"

"I can't, Tai!" He cried. Sora looked at Biyomon. "What about you, Biyo?" Biyomon nodded.

"Biyomon Digivolve to… Birdra-… Nobody?"

Biyomon shook her head. "I can't either!"

Tai grabbed Sora's hand and started running towards the entrance of the cave. "Then we just have to run!"

They ran out of the cave and came to the edge of a cliff. Tai turned to TK and Kari, who were right behind he and Sora. "This way!" He said before pulling Sora in another direction. They took a path that led to the bottom of the cliff and ran into the forest. They stopped at a couple of tree stumps and caught their breath. Sora sat down on one of the tree stumps. Something was missing… or someone. She gasped. "Where's Davis?"

Tai looked around. "Davis!" he called. No reply. He turned to Sora and Kari. "You two stay here, TK come with me!" Tai and TK ran off before Kari or Sora could stop them.

Sora stood up. "Come on, Biyomon." Kari looked at Sora with a surprised look on her face. "Where are you going?" She asked.

Sora smiled. "You don't think I'm going to let your brother have all the fun, do you?"

Kari smiled back. "Well, you're not leaving me behind, so let's go!" They ran off in the direction Tai and TK had gone in. They got there just in time to see Veemon push Davis off the cliff and to see the two fall face-first onto the ground, causing Davis's goggles to shatter. Not a second had passed before a torrent of flames hit where Veemon and Davis had been. Evidently, they weren't hurt because they jumped right back up.

"You have ta open the DigiEgg, Davis!" Veemon shouted.

"How?! I've never even opened a chicken's egg before, how am I supposed to know how to open a DigiEgg?"

"You have ta say 'DigiArmor energize'!"

Davis looked at Veemon in disbelief. "I don't see how that is supposed to make this thing open, but I guess if it means saving our tails I'll do it! DigiArmor energize!"

The egg glowed, a light engulfed Veemon, and Tai, TK, Kari, Sora, Davis and the Digimon watched as Veemon was replaced by a taller version of himself dressed in red armor.

"Veemon Armor Digivolve to… Flamedramon, the Fire of Courage!"

Davis pumped a fist. "Yeah! Go Veemon, or Flamedramon, whatever you are!"

Flamedramon charged at the Monochromon stampeding towards them. His body burst into flames and he aimed for the black ring around the Monochromon's waist. "Fire Rocket!" He shouted. The flames hit the ring, shattering it and causing the Monochromon to stop in his tracks. He roared and turned away from the teenagers and their Digimon, running into the forest.

"Way to go, Flamedramon!" Davis shouted. Flamedramon was again engulfed in light and reverted back to Veemon. He ran and jumped into Davis's arms. "Was I good, Davis?"

"You were on fire! Literally!" Davis laughed at his own lame joke while the others just groaned.

Tai walked over to where Davis and Veemon sat and took off his goggles. "Davis, I saw that your goggles broke, and we all know that a leader of the Digidestined doesn't look right without them, so I want you to have mine." (*)

Davis looked at the goggles in Tai's hand and smiled. "Hey, don't worry about it, Tai. I've got another pair of goggles at home, so you can keep yours. Besides, you don't look right without them." Tai smiled and put them back on.

Tai turned to Sora and Kari and frowned. "I thought I told you two to stay where you were. You could have been hurt."

Sora went up to him and wrapped her arms around him. "Aw, but we just wanted to watch the fun. We didn't get involved." Tai's expression didn't change. Sora put on her best puppy-dog eyes. Tai's stern expression turned soft. "I hate it when you do that to me," he said. Sora smiled and kissed his cheek.

Tai took her hand as they walked back with the younger Digidestined to the clearing that they showed up in. There was a TV set in the middle of the clearing. "When and how did that get there?" Kari asked. The screen flashed. They saw Izzy, Yolei and Cody in the computer room eating brownies. "Mmm, these are really good!"

Davis ran up to the TV. "Hey, they've got brownies! I want some!" He started fiddling with the knobs on the set and a flash of light surrounded the teens. They all appeared back in the computer room and fell into a heap, some landing on Yolei, Cody, Izzy, or each other. The only thing anybody could make out over their mumbling was Izzy's voice, saying:

"Tai, get off of me! You're squishing my brownies!"

* * *

So, that's chapter 3. Maybe I'll have some more up tomorrow, depends on if I have a mountain of homework or not. We'll see. :)

**(A/N) **Okay, I just had to tweak a minor detail in this. Tai keeps his goggles. He just doesn't look right without them, so I made Davis have another pair. :)

That's it for now! **Please review! **

-AngelOfLight04


	4. What Is This Feeling?

**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.**

Chapter 4

The group somehow managed to extract themselves from the heap they landed in. Yolei stared at the teens that had come out of the computer. "How did you do that?" she blurted out.

They hesitated… well, all except Davis, who was busy stuffing his face with brownies. "Uh… Well…" Izzy stammered. "Oh, Davis! May I see your Digivice?"

Cody looked at Izzy strangely. "A Digi-what?"

Davis pulled the Digivice out of his shorts' pocket and handed it to Izzy, who tried to ignore the brownie crumbs stuck to it. Izzy showed the device to Yolei and Cody. "You both have devices similar to this one, correct?" They nodded. "It is called a Digivice. It is proof that you are a Digidestined and that you have been called there for a reason, that reason being to help save the Digiworld from whatever danger has befallen it." Izzy's D-Terminal beeped. He sighed and opened the small handheld computer. He grimaced and looked at his watch. "I hate to say, but I'm afraid that I will have to be leaving now. I was supposed to be home an hour ago and my mother will have a heart attack if I don't get home soon. It will be hard enough making up and excuse for being late as it is, so I can't wait any longer." Izzy turned to the computer behind him and turned it off. "Meet me back here tomorrow after school and I will explain everything to you, Yolei and Cody, and we may even have a little field trip to the Digital World."

Everyone bid their farewells, going their separate ways; Yolei, Cody, and TK went in one direction; Kari, Tai and Sora went another, and even though Tai and Kari's apartment was in the direction of Yolei, Cody and TK's building, they walked with Sora to her mother's flower shop; and Izzy and Davis went across the street to the bus stop.

"That was an interesting first day of school, wasn't it?"

Kari set her backpack down in her room that she shared with Tai. She came back into the living room to see Tai sprawled across the couch, remote in hand. She picked up his feet and dropped them onto the floor before sitting down next to her brother. "Yeah, it was," she said.

There was an eerie silence between the two, which was rare. The only time there was this kind of silence was when Tai was preparing to give a lecture to her about her love life or a big bowl of chips was in front of him. Since there were no chips in the room, Kari assumed he was preparing for a lecture. _God, help me._

"You know I don't approve of him, right?" Tai finally broke the silence.

Kari whipped her head around to face him. "What? Who don't you approve of?" _Please don't say TK… Huh? Why am I thinking like this AGAIN? I don't like him like that!_

Tai raised an eyebrow. "Davis, of course. Why? Did you think I was going to say TK?" He grinned. "I'm not worried about him. It's Davis I'm worried about. He's way to obsessed with you for my liking. In fact, I'm going to give you the go-ahead with dating TK, partly so Davis will take the hint and leave my baby sister alone and partly because you two look cute together." His grin got wider

Kari felt her face turn five shades of red. "I'm going to pretend you didn't say that." She got up from the couch before Tai could say another word and made her way to their room, but she could still hear him chuckling behind her.

She closed the door behind her and leaned up against it. She sank to the floor, lost in thought. _I don't like him like _that_… right?_ _I mean we're best friends, and I haven't seen him in a while, but he's still the same old TK. His personality hasn't changed a lot, so why am I feeling like this? _A sudden realization hit her. "Am I in love with TK?" she whispered. "No, I can't be. It's just that he's been gone for so long and we're just now seeing each other face to face…"

_Keep telling yourself that, Hikari Kamiya._ One part of her said. She shook the thoughts away and picked herself up off the floor. She started on what little homework she had remaining, hoping to get her mind off of TK. _Hope. TK. There's no escaping him, is there? _She asked herself.

When she managed to get her homework done, she found that it had taken her two hours to finish, even she had practically no homework since it was the first day of school and she had done most of it in study hall. She had been thinking of one person throughout that two-hour period. A certain young man with blonde hair and blue eyes so deep you could drown in them.

Kari sighed. The more she thought of it, the more she came to realize that she had a crush on TK, and it was growing with every passing second. _But is it a crush, or is it love? I really need to talk to a pro on this subject. Maybe I could talk to Sora. After all she is the bearer of the Crest of Love._

The next day after school, Kari stood waiting for Sora and Tai to show up at the middle school. TK, Yolei, and Cody were already in the computer lab and Izzy had just arrived, saying that the high school's bell wasn't working, so the teachers were relying on their own watches and some classes had been dismissed later than others.

"Hey, Kar!" She heard from behind her. Very few people called her that, usually only family. It was none other than her older brother, Tai, with Sora grasping his hand firmly.

Kari flashed a smile at them. "Hey Tai, hey Sora. Everyone else is in the computer lab. I was waiting for you guys."

Tai raised an eyebrow. "Why? We know the way to the lab, in case you're forgetting that we went to school here."

"Uh, well, I was actually wanting to talk to Sora about… something," Kari said. She couldn't confront her brother about this matter; she wouldn't hear the end of it if he somehow slipped and her dad heard. They would both torment her with every chance they got.

"Uh, okay then," Tai said. He let go of Sora's hand and made his way to the school. "Don't take too long!" he shouted over his shoulder.

Sora linked arms with Kari and led her over to a nearby bench. "So, let's talk. What's on your mind?"

Kari sighed. "Confusion. I don't know what I'm feeling right now."

"Hmm, this wouldn't happen to be about a boy, would it?"

Kari's head snapped up from staring at the ground. "How did you know?"

Sora winked at her friend. "You're like a sister to me, Kari. And a good big sister knows how to read her little sister like a book. At least this sister does."

Kari once again found the ground very interesting. "So… You know what I'm talking about, then?"

"Depends. What guy?"

Kari hesitated. She felt a warm blush creep into her cheeks. Sora spoke up again. "Is it a certain shorter version of Matt?"

"…Maybe."

Sora squealed. "Yeah, girl! It's about time you woke up and saw the light! We were wondering when you would find out that you loved him!"

Kari whipped her head around to face Sora. "What do you mean by that?"

"Please, Kari. Everyone knows that you two were meant to be together. Except TK, of course. It's so obvious."

Kari groaned. "Great. How come everyone knew that I had a crush on him before I did?"

Sora rubbed her back. "Well, Kari, for one thing, a lot of us have had experience with dating and love. And there is a difference between a crush and true love, mind you. I can tell this is more than a crush, considering I have the Crest of Love and it's easier for me to tell how other people feel about another person." She stood up, bringing Kari up with her. "If you want to talk again later, feel free to call me and we'll get together and discuss this further. But for now I think it's time we got to the computer lab. Everyone's waiting for us."

Kari nodded and walked with Sora to the lab. Just as they were about to enter the school, she looked up and turned to her friend, her big sister. "Sora?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. For everything. You're a great sister." She smiled.

Sora smiled back and winked. "Anytime, sis."

Sora and Kari opened the door to the computer room to find everyone there ready for their trip to the Digital World. "You guys ready?" Tai asked. "Izzy already told Yolei and Cody about the Digiworld and we're ready to hit the road."

Both girls nodded. Sora grabbed Tai's hand and smiled. They all took out their Digivices and aimed them at the screen. The familiar light surrounded them and Sora again felt herself being dragged into the computer. The scenery changed, she felt herself stop in midair for a moment before landing on her feet. "Hey, we didn't end up in a pile like yesterday," TK said.

"Yeah, now if only we could find out how to land on our feet when we go back to the school," Kari said, looking for Gatomon.

Yolei looked around. "So, this is the Digiworld, huh?" She placed her hands on her hips and looked down at her new outfit. "Hey, when did I change clothes?"

Davis and Cody also looked down at their new outfits. "Whoa, cool! I didn't notice it yesterday, but this place comes with a new wardrobe!"

Sora checked her own clothes. They were still the same; a green skirt, green shirt, white and blue bandana like a sailor would wear, and blue tennis shoes. She looked back up. Tai and Izzy hadn't changed a bit, and Kari and TK only had different shoes. "We didn't get new clothes. No fair! I hate these uniforms!"

Davis smirked and opened his mouth to say something, probably a witty comeback, but a quick glare from Tai shut him up. Instead he pretended to yawn and then shouted, "Veemon! Where are you, buddy? Veemon!"

"Davis!" A little blue reptile called back. He ran towards the group followed by Patamon, Gatomon, Agumon, Biyomon, and Tentomon. Each teen caught their Digimon in their arms and hugged them tight, all except for Yolei and Cody, who stared in awe.

"So, these are Digimon?" Cody asked. He held out a nervous hand to Patamon, but hesitated. He started to pull back but Patamon grinned and said, "It's okay; I don't bite."

Cody's eyes widened as big as saucers. "They talk, too?" TK nodded and grinned, apparently finding Cody's shock amusing. He stuck his hand out again and rubbed Patamon's head.

Yolei bent down to be eye level with Gatomon. "How cute!" She scratched Gatomon behind the ears, receiving satisfied purrs in return.

Tai stood up from his crouched position beside Agumon. "Well, Yolei and Cody, this is the Digiworld. And since you are Digidestined, we should start off by finding your own Digimon partner. We'll just start off in one direction and let the Digivices tell us where to go."

They didn't have time to do so before a large Digimon that resembled a praying mantis flew out from the forest several yards behind them.

"It's a Snimon!" Tentomon shouted.

"Tentomon Digivolve to… Not Kabuterimon!"

"Hmm… Well that didn't work!" He said. "Let's try this! Super Shocker!" The attack was deflected and he just barely made it out of the way.

The rest of the Digimon joined in trying to hold Snimon off.

"Pepper Breath!"

"Spiral Twister!"

"Boom Bubble!"

"Lightning Paw!"

"V-Head Butt!"

"Super Shocker!"

All of the attacks dispersed and Gatomon and Veemon fell backwards upon contact with Snimon.

"Tai!" Agumon shouted as he ran back to the leader. "What are we going to do? We can't Digivolve and Snimon isn't fazed at all by our attacks!"

Veemon shook his head and sat up. "Leave it to me! I'll just Armor Digivolve and whoop this bug's butt!" He looked at Davis. "Get the egg ready, Davis!"

Davis nodded. He took out the D-Terminal and opened the device. He started to pull up the egg on the mini computer.

Tai clenched his fist. "I hate it when we have to, but the rest of us just have to run! There isn't much we can do to help. So start running!"

Everyone turned to run. The ground shook and most of the group fell to their knees. A hole opened up in the ground and Davis fell in. "Aaah!" He shouted as he fell. Sora was close enough to the hole and she peered in. Davis hung precariously from a rock jutting out from the wall. Veemon also peered over the edge. "Hold on, Davis! I'll save ya!" he shouted.

Something roared from the depths of the hole. A Drimogemon appeared. Sora gasped. It was going for Davis. The Drimogemon's eyes were blood red and she could see a dark ring attached to its wrist.

The ground shook again, but not from the Drimogemon. She turned and saw a Mojyamon stomp through the trees. It threw a boomerang shaped bone at Veemon. The boomerang hit Veemon in the back of the head and the poor Digimon toppled forwards. "Oomph!" He fell face first down the hole. Sora reached out to grab him, but she couldn't reach him. An arm wrapped around her waist before she could fall in herself.

"Veemon!" Davis shouted to his friend. He, too, reached out for the Digimon with his free hand but, seeing as Veemon was on the other side of his body, couldn't quite get to him. He suddenly let go of the rock and grabbed onto Veemon's tail. They both fell farther down into the hole. The Drimogemon caught them and pulled them back to wherever it came from.

"Davis! Veemon!" Sora shouted. Not a sound was heard from the hole. The only sounds she could hear were behind her.

"They'll be alright, Sora." She turned to see Tai, his arm still around her waist. "We'll get them back," he continued. "I promise. We're not leaving till we have Davis and Veemon. But right now, we have to get out of here."

She nodded and let him help her to her feet. They would be alright. She had a feeling that they would figure something out and escape, even if they had to get help from the rest of the team.

Yolei was still on her knees. "T-the ground j-just… swallowed them up…"

Cody was trembling violently. "I-I think I want to go home now."

Izzy ran up behind the two, followed by TK and Kari. "First we have to protect ourselves," Izzy said.

"But what about Davis?" Cody still trembled.

Tai placed a hand on the younger boy's shoulder and looked him in the eye. "He'll be fine. He has Veemon and if they put their heads together and think of a way to create a distraction, we get rescue them and all will be fine." He flashed an encouraging smile. Cody seemed to relax a little. "But right now we have to get out of here. Our Digimon can't Digivolve, so they're only at half strength. Veemon can Digivolve."

Mojyamon and Snimon were gradually closing in on them. Sora took Yolei's arm and tried to pull her up, but the girl stayed put. Yolei's eyes filled with tears. "I can't take this! I just wanna go home!" She let out a pitiful wail. Sora felt sympathy for the younger girl.

Kari knelt down next to Yolei. She whispered something in Yolei's ear, but no one could hear what she was saying. It calmed her down a bit. "Okay?" Kari said a bit louder now. Yolei swiped at the tears running down her face and nodded. Kari smiled at her new friend.

Sora didn't ask Kari what she had said to Yolei; she would probably tell her later. The group managed to create a diversion and escaped to the forest while Mojyamon and Snimon were utterly confused.

Once they were sure they were far enough away from the evil Digimon, they slowed down to a walk. No one knew how long they had been walking. Even Izzy lost track of time, since the trees blocked out any view of the sun they could get. Yolei and Kari were whispering, an occasional giggle escaping. TK and Cody were behind them, carrying on their own conversation. Tai and Sora were at front, lost in their own thoughts. Izzy brought up the rear with Tentomon.

Tai's thoughts were filled with his relationship with Sora. They hadn't been dating long. Only for a few months, just after the summer holidays began to be exact. He wondered if their relationship would last and if they would get married. Sure, he was a little young to be thinking about getting married, he was only fifteen, but he couldn't prevent the thoughts from entering his head.

Little did he know that Sora was wondering the same thing.

A soft hand slipped into his and entwined their fingers together. He didn't have to look to know that it was Sora. He smiled. He felt confident that their relationship would last for a while, if not forever.

Kari and Yolei walked behind Tai and Sora. They shared a glance and smiled at each other when Sora grasped his hand. It wasn't much, but it was still a _bit _romantic, right? _I wonder if TK and I could be like that one day…_ Kari thought.

A high-pitched beeping interrupted her thoughts. Yolei pulled her Digivice from her belt and stared at the screen. Cody did the same. "Hold up," Yolei said. She stopped in her tracks. Everyone took out their Digivices. The screens showed two red dots. "Is it Davis?" Sora asked.

Izzy shook his head. "I don't think so. If it is Davis, who has the other Digivice? I think something else is making the Digivices react."

Sora turned to Biyomon. "Are there any buildings around?"

"Nope," the little pink bird said, shaking her head. "Only the temple, and it hasn't been used in years."

"It was originally built for weddings," Tentomon said. "But I don't think we're going to find any caterers inside."

"There's only one way to find out," Tai said. "To the temple!"

They continued their march through the forest until Tentomon and Agumon pulled some branches aside to reveal a temple that resembled an Aztec pyramid.

Yolei looked on with disbelief. "We have to go in _there?_ It's gonna take forever to get up all of those steps!"

"We might as well get it over with," TK said. "We're not making any progress standing out here in the woods."

The group made their way down the path leading to the temple and started up the steps. "Could these stairs be any longer?" Yolei complained. No one really blamed her for it; they were all pretty tired and climbing up several flights of stairs wasn't helping.

"Think of it this way, Yolei," Agumon said. He pointed to the next flight of steps that led inside the temple. "Only a few more steps to go."

Yolei groaned but kept on going up the steps. They all leaned against the walls when they were finally inside.

"Even I have to admit that my legs feel like jelly," Tai said.

"And this is coming from the guy who has endured six hour soccer tournaments without a break," Kari said. "Now that's saying something."

Yolei looked up from her position on the floor of the temple. "Hey, what's that up there?"

They all looked to where she was pointing. Two more DigiEggs sat on pedestals at the back of the temple. Sora examined one of them. "That one right there has the Crest of Love on it."

"And the other one has the Crest of Knowledge on it. Maybe those are our DigiEggs."

Sora and Izzy went to where the eggs sat. They each grabbed the one with their respective crests on it and tugged. Unlike the other DigiEgg, there wasn't an electric shock running through their fingers, but the eggs still wouldn't budge. "Hmm. Yolei, come here for a minute, please," Sora said.

"You too, Cody," Izzy said. His eyes were still fixed on the DigiEgg with his crest.

Yolei and Cody were at the older teens' sides in moments. "Yolei, I want you to try to move the DigiEgg."

"Same goes for you, Cody. I have a hunch that these DigiEggs belong to you two."

Yolei and Cody were taken aback. "Um, okay, if you say so, Izzy."

Yolei gripped the DigiEgg with the Crest of Love on it and Cody gripped the one with the Crest of Knowledge. They pulled and the eggs came loose with hardly any trouble at all. A red light burst up from where the DigiEgg of Love had been and a purple light did the same where the other egg had been. A mass formed in each of the lights; Digimon, Sora guessed, since the same thing had happened to Davis the day before and Yolei and Cody were the only two without Digimon.

A miniature hawk formed in the red light and jumped out. Yolei caught it in her arms. "I'm Hawkmon," the Digimon said. "It is a pleasure to meet you, milady."

Yolei blinked. "Uh, I'm Yolei Inoue," she managed to squeak out. "Nice to, uh, meet you, too."

An armadillo formed in the other mass of light. Or at least it _looked_ like an armadillo. It also jumped out to Cody. It yawned. "I'm Armadillomon," it said. "I was having such a nice nap…"

"Sorry to wake you," Cody said. "I'm Cody Hida."

"Howdy-do, Cody. We're gonna be partners from now on."

Izzy beamed. "Well, that solves the mystery of why our Digivices were activating. And you got Digimon in the process! Prodigious!"

"So, Yolei, we will be working as partners from now on," Hawkmon said, jumping down from Yolei's arms.

"What? I don't fight! Sure, I fight with my sisters, but that's different!"

"Are you saying that you don't fight? Harrumph. Why did _I_ have to get stuck with the defective human?"

Sora held back a giggle. She heard Tai, Kari and TK snicker behind her. Tai came up beside Yolei. "Yolei, we have this friend, Mimi," Tai said. "She is a whole lot like you."

Sora nodded. "That's right. She used to tell us all the time that she didn't want to fight anymore, but she knew she had to."

"She did it for the Digital World and for us," TK threw in. "The more you stick with your Digimon, the closer your bond will become."

"That's a friendship that you can keep for the rest of your life," Kari said. She smiled up at the taller girl. "And you have another friend for life: me. All of us, for that matter."

Yolei smiled back. She hugged Kari. Then she hugged Sora. "Thanks guys. You've made me feel a lot better about everything today."

Izzy looked down at Cody, who was about two heads shorter than he. "So, Cody, what do you think about the Digital World so far?"

Cody looked down at the DigiEgg in his hands. "I really don't know. There's still so much I haven't seen yet. And I like to get all the information before I decide on something."

Tai flashed his trademark grin. "You remind me of another smart kid I know, Cody."

"Really, Tai?" Cody asked, looking up from the egg. "Who?"

"Well, he's standing right next to you!"

Cody turned back around. Izzy nodded. "You are a lot like me, Cody. You're a curious kid who wants to know all the facts. Just do what I did: learn to trust your instincts. And if there's a problem you can't solve, just come to me and we can work it out together."

Cody smiled and nodded at his new friends. The egg in his hands as well as Yolei's lit up.

"I beg your pardon," Hawkmon said. "But in order for us to Armor Digivolve you must say the words 'DigiArmor energize'."

Yolei and Cody exchanged strange looks and shrugged. "DigiArmor energize!"

A red light surrounded Hawkmon and a purple light surrounded Armadillomon.

"Hawkmon Armor Digivolve to… Halsemon, the wings of Love!"

A Digimon ten times the size of Hawkmon stood in his place, standing in four legs. He had a silver helmet with the Crest of Love imprinted on the top. He had four wings, two coming out of his back and two more coming from his helmet.

"Armadillomon Armor Digivolve to… Digmon, the drill of Power!"

Digmon resembled a big of some sort with a drill for a nose and two drills on each hand.

"Now, what do you say we go rescue the others?"

Sora, Kari, Tai, Izzy, TK, Cody and the Digimon watched as Yolei flew on Halsemon and Digmon as he dug a tunnel into the wall of the canyon. Digmon disappeared, saying that he was going for Veemon while Yolei and Halsemon went for Davis. Davis and Veemon were attached to the walls of the canyon by locks on their wrists and feet.

"Who's that?" Cody pointed to a lone figure at the top of the canyon. It appeared to be a teenager with spiky dark blue hair, purple sunglasses, and a cape.

"That's the Digimon Emperor!" Biyomon exclaimed.

Gatomon growled. "I'll take care of him." She ran up a path leading out of the canyon before anyone could stop her.

"Gatomon!" Kari called after her Digimon, but she was too far gone.

"Hey, look! The Digimon Emperor's got a dark ring going for Veemon!" Agumon said.

"Tempest wing!" The red lasers disintegrated the dark ring just before it hit Veemon.

"Hey, Davis!" Yolei called to him as she passed by him. "What's up?"

"Not much," he replied. "Just hanging around."

Out of the corner of her eye, Sora saw Gatomon land a punch on a worm-like Digimon. The Digimon flew back and hit the Digimon Emperor on the shoulder, causing him to let go of the items in his hand. "Wormmon, you're useless! Snimon! Mojyamon! Drimogemon! Get them all!" He cracked his whip at Gatomon and threw her over the edge and she plummeted to the ground. Somehow, she managed to land on Halsemon's back. "Way to go back there!" Yolei called from the front.

"I'll take that!" Yolei snatched the Digivice and D-Terminal from the air. They landed back where they were when they started, with Snimon hot on their tails. Yolei tossed the D-Terminal and Digivice to Davis. He opened the D-Terminal and shouted. "DigiArmor energize!" In moments, Flamedramon stood in Veemon's place.

"Now let's show them what Armor Digimon are made of!" He said. Halsemon took off with Yolei on his back and Snimon behind them. Digmon drilled into the ground, Drimogemon following. Mojyamon threw a giant icicle at Flamedramon.

Flamedramon's hand lit up with fire. He caught the icicle in his hand and it melted on contact. "Fire rocket!" Fire shot from his hand and hit the dark ring on Mojyamon, destroying the dark ring for good.

"Yeah! Go Flamedramon!" Davis shouted.

Halsemon flew directly at Snimon. "Time for Tempest wing!" The lasers hit the dark ring right before they could run into Snimon head-on. Snimon stopped and hovered in the air, confused as to what had just happened. "Whoo-hoo! Way to go, Halsemon!" Yolei called out.

Digmon dug back up to surface. Drimogemon wasted no time in following. "Gold rush!" Digmon shouted. The drills hit Drimogemon's foot with the dark ring on it. The ring disappeared and Drimogemon blinked.

Flamedramon, Halsemon, and Digmon reverted back to their Rookie forms. "Sorry we had ta fight ya," Veemon said. "But we were just trying to destroy the dark rings."

"It's okay," Mojyamon said. "Thanks for saving us. It's no fun working for the Emperor."

"Yeah," Drimogemon said as they walked away. "It's always 'destroy this', 'destroy that', 'get me a cappuccino'. Ugh."

"He makes me so mad!" Davis raised his fists. "I'm gonna show him who's boss around here!"

"So, Yolei, can I count on you to be my partner?" Hawkmon asked.

"Absolutely!" Yolei exclaimed.

"And are we gonna be a team from now on, Cody?" Armadillomon asked.

"Of course! I would be honored!" Cody bowed to Armadillomon.

Sora placed her hands on her hips. "Well, looks like the new Digidestined don't need us around anymore."

Tai shook his head. "I wouldn't be so sure about that."

Izzy nodded his head in agreement. "Tai's right. I'm sure there's plenty of things we can do to help."

The Digimon all threw in their agreements. Tai grinned. "Well, we've spent far too long here in the Digiworld today. Time to go home!"

They made their way back to the nearest portal and were transported back to the computer lab. Of course they landed in a heap. Something soft and furry landed on Sora's cheek, causing her to be stuck between Tai's chest and… whatever it was. She picked the thing up and looked it in the eyes. "Who are you?"

"I'm DemiVeemon! I'm the in-training form of Veemon!" The little thing said.

Sora sat up, allowing Tai to get off the floor. "How cute!" she said.

DemiVeemon jumped to Davis. "Hiya, Davish!"

Davis groaned, then laughed. "Great. He can't say my name right." Everyone laughed at him.

"So, all of the Digimon returned to their in-training forms, huh?" Tai asked.

"Yep!" Salamon said. Sora had always thought it odd that Salamon resembled a dog when her in-training and Champion forms resembled cats. "Except for me. Since I was in my Champion form when we came through, I went back to my Rookie form instead."

Yolei hugged the pink bird in her arms. "They're so cute!"

Cody stared at the cream colored blob on the floor next to him. "It's hard to believe that this tiny little Digimon can become something so big."

Izzy looked around. "Hey, where are Agumon, Biyomon and Tentomon? Shouldn't they be here in their in-training forms?"

"Here we are!" Came a voice from an overturned chair. Tai picked it up to find Koromon, Yokomon, and Motimon in a dog pile. He chuckled and picked up Koromon. "It's been a while since I've seen you like this, little buddy!" Koromon grumbled something about not being so little.

Sora picked up Yokomon. "Now the question is, how are we going to get them home without anyone seeing? The streets are still busy, even at this time of night."

"I'm sure Motimon can fit into my laptop case if I carry my laptop," Izzy said. "The other Digimon can probably fit into the younger Digidestined's school bags. As for you, Tai and Sora, I don't know how you can hide Koromon and Yokomon."

Tai smirked. "They could brave it and ride in my bag of soccer clothes."

Kari's eyes widened. "They would have to be _really_ brave to do that."

Tai held Koromon up to eye level. "I hope you can stand the smell of my dirty soccer uniform, smelly socks and muddy cleats."

Koromon gulped. "It can't be that bad… right, Kari?"

Kari laughed. "Find out for yourself. I'm not going anywhere near the inside of that bag. And I'm not sticking around to listen to you complaining about it, either. So, Tai, I will need the keys to the apartment."

Tai tossed her the keys and went for the bag on the other side of the computer lab. The Digidestined parted ways; Poromon, Upamon, Tokomon, Salamon, and DemiVeemon rode in the backpacks of their partners; Motimon rode in Izzy's laptop case, and Koromon and Yokomon rode in Tai's soccer bag, trying their hardest not to scream out in agony.


	5. Plotting and Confusion

Hey hey hey! Thanks for the reviews! I would have had this chapter up sooner, but Document Manager was being weird... Anyway, just giving you people a fair warning, this chapter is more romance than adventure, but, hey this is also a romance fic, so... I just thought I would include the ages for the characters, since I keep on forgetting to do that and I just remembered to do it...

Joe: 16

Tai, Sora, Matt: 15

Izzy, Mimi: 14

Yolei, Ken (AKA, Digimon Emperor):13

TK, Kari, Davis: 12

Cody: 11

**Disclaimer: **Yeah, I'm using the characters. Sue me.... NO NOT REALLY!! Just because I'm using the characters doesn't mean I _own _them! Sheesh... Do I have to spell it out?! _I don't own Digimon!_

Chapter 5

When Tai and Sora reached Sora's apartment door, Tai unzipped the bag slung over his shoulder and let the two pink Digimon poke their heads out and gasp for fresh air. "Y-you… w-weren't kidding," Koromon gasped. "It smells horrible! When was the last time you washed your socks, Tai?"

Tai quirked an eyebrow. "I wash them every night after soccer practice. They aren't _that_ bad, Koromon."

"Keep telling yourself that, Tai!" Yokomon exclaimed, jumping out of the bag and landing by Sora's feet.

Sora and Tai laughed at the Digimon. They were probably right, anyway. Sora took out a key from the pocket on her skirt and unlocked the door for Yokomon. "Just go to my room," she said. "My mom won't be home till later tonight, so you don't have to worry about her seeing you." Yokomon hopped inside and Sora closed the door behind her. She leaned on the door.

"So, what did Kari want to talk to you about?" Tai asked.

Sora giggled. "Oh, nothing. Just some girl talk."

Tai raised an eyebrow. "Why do I have a hard time believing that it wasn't 'just some girl talk'?"

"Well, if you _really_ want to know…"

"Yes, I _really_ want to know!"

"It's about a guy she likes…"

"And this guy just so happens to be…" Tai persisted.

"A miniature version of Matt that just moved back to Odaiba…"

Tai's eyes widened and his toothy grin appeared on his tanned face. "Well, it's about time she figured it out!"

"That's what I said." Sora chuckled.

"So, when is she going to tell him?"

Sora stared at her boyfriend in disbelief. "You mean, confess to him? Tai, they're twelve years old. I honestly think that they're a little young to be dating anyone. We only started dating this summer, and we're fifteen. They should probably be at least thirteen or fourteen before they start going out."

Tai nodded. "Yeah, you're right. And, knowing Kari, she'd probably be a little scared to confess. I mean, he _just_ moved back. She wouldn't want to risk ruining their friendship so early on. But, that doesn't mean we can't think of a way to set them up for future references."

Sora shook her head at Tai. "Tai, you are _such_ an idiot."

Tai feigned offence. "Ouch, Sor. I was just planning ahead."

"Well, didn't I just finish saying that they're a little young? We should wait awhile ourselves before we set them up. Though I do admit, it would be fun to be involved in getting those two together."

Tai smirked. "You see, I was right."

"Who's saying you weren't? Certainly not me," Sora said, sarcasm flavoring her words.

Tai enveloped her in a tight embrace. "I should be going now. My mom is going to flip if I don't get home soon. I sure hope Kari covered for me."

She returned the hug. "She probably did. I'll see you tomorrow, 'kay?"

"Yeah," Tai said. His lips brushed against hers briefly.

"Aww!"

"Eww!"

They jerked apart. There in the doorway stood Yokomon, a sweet smile on her face. Who knew how long she had been watching them? And in Tai's bag there was Koromon, slightly grossed out from the small kiss. "Koromon," Tai said. "I know you were listening to that conversation, so if you tell Kari or TK about this, you. Are. Dead." He emphasized the last few words to prove his point.

Koromon nodded. "Sir, yes, sir!"

Sora peered down at Yokomon. "Okay, so how long were you there eavesdropping?"

"Not long at all," came the reply. "Just long enough to see you two kiss." Yokomon grinned at the pair, who just rolled their eyes.

Tai zipped up his soccer bag against the protests of Koromon. "Shut up, Koromon. You can't talk from now until we get home." He turned back to Sora. "I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight, Sora."

Sora stood on her tiptoes and kissed Tai's cheek. "Goodnight, Tai. Maybe we can drag some of the other older Digidestined into our plan for hooking Kari and TK up."

"And you were the one that said that we should wait till they were older. Whatever you say. I'll talk to Kari tonight. Maybe I can get her to tell me about her feelings for TK. I still don't see why she came to you and not me; I'm her big brother!"

"Well, sometimes it's easier to discuss these things with other girls," Sora said. "You should leave now. We've been keeping you here longer than you need to be."

Tai waved at her and started down the hall, walking backwards for a moment. "Right. Bye, Sora. Bye, Yokomon. See ya tomorrow."

"Bye, Tai." Sora waved back and stepped into her apartment with Yokomon after seeing the spiky haired teen disappear around the corner.

~*~*~*

Kari flopped down on the couch and closed her eyes. Salamon hopped into her lap and curled up. They were both satisfied having just finished a decent meal, however simple it was. At least her mother hadn't cooked it.

She heard the front door open and her eyes shot open. She threw a blanket over her lap and put a pillow over it, trying to cover up the lump that was Salamon. Her parents didn't need to know about Salamon, not yet, at least. They didn't need to get worried about their children being involved with the Digiworld again.

"Kari, I'm home!" Tai called. Kari heaved a sigh of relief. She felt Salamon release a sigh as well, though she couldn't see the puppy-looking Digimon. It was only Tai; they didn't have to hide her yet.

"Hey, Tai," she greeted. "There's half of a pizza left in the kitchen. Dad's working late and Mom had to run some errands, so we don't have to try to choke down Mom's cooking." She uncovered Salamon as she said this.

Tai whispered what sounded like, "Hallelujah!" He unzipped his soccer bag to reveal Koromon. The pink blob jumped out and hopped to the door leading to the balcony. Kari had left it open from when she had gone out there right after she got home. Koromon heaved in huge gulps of fresh air. Tai rolled his eyes. "He over-exaggerates. It doesn't smell as bad in there as he convinces himself."

"Maybe you've just gotten used to it, so it doesn't smell so bad to you," Salamon said, a sly smile forming. "After all, you've played soccer for years."

"Whatever."

Koromon came back inside and followed Tai to the kitchen to get some pizza. Kari could hear them scarfing down whole slices in a single bite. _What pigs…_ she thought. She grabbed the TV remote and starting flicking through channels. Nothing interesting came on, so she decided to leave it on a soccer game Tai would probably find interest in.

A few minutes later, Salamon had fallen asleep on Kari's lap, finding the soccer game boring; Koromon had collapsed on the couch after eating hid fourth piece of pizza and Tai got into the game. Kari found it amusing when he would stand up and cheer for one team when they scored or when he threw his arms into the air in frustration. At one point, Tai was completely quiet and still, which was strangely unusual for him while watching a soccer game.

_Uh oh… _Kari thought._ I bet he's thinking hard about something… Sora probably told him what we were talking about and he wants to talk about it. He'll deny it in any way he can if I ask him about what Sora said. A lecture's coming in five… four… three… two… now._

"Hey, Kari, what were you and Sora talking about earlier?"

_Or he could cover it up, acting clueless._ "Oh, you know, just some stuff. Girl talk."

Tai mumbled something about hearing that somewhere before. "I bet it was about a boy you like," he came right out and said.

Kari blushed furiously. _Yep, Sora definitely told him._ "Maybe. Maybe not."

"I bet it was about TK…"

This caused Kari to blush even more. If anyone on the streets below could see inside the apartment, they would surely see a girl with her face as red as a tomato. "W-what makes y-you think t-that?"

"You're stuttering, that's one thing. And the way you blushed when I said I thought it was about TK. Face it, sis. It's obvious you like him. Like, _like_ him. Everyone knows it, the Digidestined, that is. It was just a matter of time before you figured it out yourself."

Kari's stomach dropped. Everyone knew? "Does TK know?"

Tai waved a hand nonchalantly, as if brushing something away. "Nah. He's clueless. Let me rephrase the definition of 'everyone': all of the older Digidestined except you and TK. All of them know that you like him, and Yolei and Cody are going to figure it out soon enough. Maybe Davis, if he can get it through his thick head…"

Kari tried to hold back a laugh. "Tai! Don't talk bad about him!"

"I'm not! Don't get me wrong, he's a good kid, but he's so stubborn and obnoxious…"

"Don't forget possessive."

"How could I forget? He calls you 'his girl' like you're property. He should know not to do that around me…"

"Tai…" Kari scolded. Of course he was getting overprotective again.

"Okay, okay, changing subject."

~*~*~*

_Beep… Beep… Beep…_

TK groaned and slapped at the alarm clock. He missed, slapped at it again, and missed again. He finally pressed the snooze button, taking five more minutes to sleep. Sleep didn't come, even if for only a short time TK would have been thankful for it. The alarm clock did its job well the first time. He reluctantly got up, turned the once again beeping alarm clock off, grabbed some clothes and made his way to the bathroom for a shower.

Only one person invaded his thoughts that morning as he got ready for school. Kari Kamiya. _I should talk to Matt about my feelings for her. I don't know if it's just a crush or if it's love. Besides, I haven't seen him since he helped me and mom unpack when we moved here._

TK checked his reflection in the bathroom mirror. He looked the same as any other day: same old messy blonde hair, same old teal and yellow jacket over a tee shirt, along with shorts and same old sneakers. He pulled on his white fisherman's hat over his hair and walked into the kitchen to find a bowl of oatmeal on the counter. "And same old lumpy oatmeal…" he mumbled. He sat down at the counter and poked at the mush with a spoon. He could hear his mother in the next room tapping away at the keyboard on the computer.

"Hurry up, TK!" she called to him. "Sorry, but you're going to have to walk again. I still have this report to finish on the historical significance of toilet paper…"

He set his half-empty bowl in the sink and picked up his backpack. He stopped in the doorway of the study on his way to the front door and gave his mother a questioning look. "Toilet paper?"

She sighed. "Yes, but I think my boss is just giving me this assignment to keep me busy, since he's giving the assignments with an actual _purpose_ to some newer reporters. He's giving me and some others who have been there as long as I have these kind of assignments."

TK shrugged. "Well, this _is_ the same guy who made us move to Kyoto only to bring us back to Odaiba four years later."

"That's true… You'd better get going. Have a good day at school!"

"Bye, Mom!" TK called over his shoulder as the door shut behind him. He walked down the open corridor to the elevator and pressed the button. The door opened to reveal Yolei and Cody.

"Bonjour, mes amis," he greeted.

Cody had a confused look on his face. "Say what?"

"It's French," Yolei said as the group stepped out of the elevator and started walking in the direction of the school. "It means 'Hello, my friends'."

Cody obviously felt like he should have known that. TK saw this and patted his younger friend on the back. "Don't worry about it, Cody. The only reason I know French is because when my grandparents retired, they moved to France and I've visited them every summer since I was three years old. You kind of _have_ to know French if you want to survive with them in France for a month…"

Cody lightened up a bit. They spent the rest of the walk to school talking about random things, laughing at one another when they stumbled upon tongue-twisters, and goofing off. Davis arrived at the school gates just as they did and they saw Kari sitting on a bench inside the courtyard as she waited for them.

"Hey, guys!" Kari called as they neared her. "Are we all going to the Digiworld today? Tai and Sora said that they can't come because they have practice for their respective sports, but I think we can handle it on our own."

Everyone except TK nodded their heads 'yes'. Davis furrowed his brow. "Why aren't you coming, JC?"

"I have tryouts for basketball after school," TK said. "It lasts till five, so I can't come if I want to be on the team. Sorry, guys. Maybe tomorrow."

Yolei shrugged. "It's alright. We won't go, then."

Davis fumed. "Who says we aren't going? Who made you in charge, Yolei? I say we will be just fine without TR!"

TK rolled his eyes. _You only say that because you're jealous of me being close friends with Kari…_

Yolei clenched a fist. "Davis, chill out, okay? We aren't going because we are a _team_ and we don't leave others out!"

Davis opened his mouth to object, but Kari cut in. "Yolei's right, Davis. We have to stick together as a team."

Davis shut his mouth. TK suppressed a laugh. _Of course he does whatever Kari says._

The first bell rang, telling the students that they had ten minutes to get to their first class. The group separated, planning to get back together at lunch.

~*~*~*

"Hey, TK."

TK looked up from his notebook. Chase sat down in the desk beside his and continued, "Where have you been lately? I don't see you outside of this class and PE, and when I tried to call you yesterday, your mom said that you weren't home."

TK hesitated. Should he tell Chase about the Digital World? It was a pretty crazy thing to believe if you weren't a Digidestined; TK knew from trying to convince his mom four years ago that the Digital World was real, during the short time they were back home and when Kari had first joined the team, that it was a pretty unbelievable thing. He decided against telling his friend about it.

"Oh, uh, I've been hanging out with my brother for the past couple of days," he lied. "And I went to see my dad after school yesterday, so that's why I wasn't home." This was partly true. He _had_ gone to see his dad at the TV station, but not right after school.

Chase nodded and looked out the window of the classroom. Rain pelted the windows. What had been a bright, cheerful day had turned into a dark, depressing day. "Looks like we won't be having tryouts for basketball today unless it clears up. There's a leak in the ceiling of the gym, so we can't have it there."

_I guess I_ am_ going to the Digiworld today._ TK thought. "That's too bad. We'll get together sometime, but not today; I have to be somewhere after school," he promised.

Chase gave him a thumbs-up. "Sounds good," he whispered just before the teacher started the lecture.

~*~*~*

"Looks like I'll be going to the Digiworld after all; tryouts have been cancelled," TK said as he sat down next to Kari.

Davis muttered something that sounded like, "Darn, now I don't have a chance to ask Kari out without BT watching…" Apparently, Yolei heard him and smacked him on hit him on the back of the head. "Shut up, Davis!" she hissed.

Kari covered a grin with her hand. "He'll never learn that I don't like him that way," she whispered.

TK smirked, then got lost in his own thoughts. _If only you knew how _I_ feel about you. You make me so confused sometimes, Kari, but I think this is a good type of confusion… Man, I _so _have to call Matt when I get home tonight._

"'Ello?" Yolei waved her hand in front of his eyes. TK blinked and saw every eye at the table on him. "Uh, sorry. Zoned out for a minute…"

Yolei drew back her hand. "It's all right. But I asked you if you wanted to go with the rest of us after visiting the Digiworld to get ice cream."

TK shook his head. "As much as I would like to, I can't. I was planning on going to see my brother or at least call him as soon as we got back from the Digiworld. Sorry, guys."

Davis slapped the table lightly. "Man, HR, first you have basketball practice and you can't come with us to the Digiworld, and then you plan on going to se your brother instead of going out for ice cream with us. You ditching us or something?"

"No, I just haven't seen Matt since I moved here; I'm not ditching you guys."

"And his name is _TK_," Kari threw in.

"Whatever." Davis shrugged his shoulders.

"I wonder if we'll run into the Digimon Emperor today," Cody said, changing the subject.

"I hope not," Kari said. "He gives me the creeps. I can't believe he would be so cruel as to use defenseless Digimon for his own purposes by enslaving them! The jerk!"

"Ditto!" Yolei exclaimed.

"Um… TK? What the heck are you and your friends talking about?"

TK turned around to see Chase giving him a strange look. "Oh, hey Chase," TK said. "It's, uh, nothing…"

"Oookay, whatever floats your boat, Teeks. Mind if I sit with you guys?"

TK motioned for Davis to scoot over. "Go ahead. Guys, this is Chase. He's in my history class. Chase, these guys are Yolei, Kari, Cody, and Davis." He motioned to each of his friends as he introduced them.

"Nice to meet you," Chase nodded at the group. "So, are these the old friends you've been hanging around the past few days?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess you could say that, though the majority of them aren't really _old_ friends. I just met them when I moved back to Odaiba. I've known Kari since I was eight, though."

Chase nodded. "I see." Then, when no one was looking or diving into their own conversations, he whispered in TK's ear. "That Kari girl is kinda cute."

TK felt his face flush lightly. "Hey, back off, you don't even know her so don't go hitting on her," he whispered back.

"What? No! I wasn't even thinking of hitting on her. I was saying that for your benefit, not mine. Kind of implying that you should ask her out…"

TK gave his friend a wide-eyed look. "What?! She's my best friend, Chase. I'm not about to ask my best friend out on a date… At least not yet…"

Chase smirked. "Yeah, I knew it. You've got the hots for Kari…"

"Shut up."

(Kari's perspective)

Kari leaned closer to Yolei to whisper in her ear. "Uh, Yolei, can I tell you something? And can you keep it a secret between us?"

Yolei nodded. "Sure thing."

"Um… Well, there's this guy…" Kari started off.

"Whoa! Seriously? Who is it? Do I know him? Is he cute?... It's not Davis, is it?"

Kari drew her head back. "What?! No way! Ew! To answer your questions… Yes, seriously. I'll let you figure out who it is. Yes, you know him. And yes, he's cute. At least _I_ think so."

Yolei looked around. She lowered her hushed whisper even further, barely audible. "Is it one of the Digidestined?"

Kari felt her cheeks grow hot, something that was happening to her a lot more in the past few days. "Y-yeah… um…"

Yolei's eyes widened and a grin sprouted. "Oooh! Kari! Why don't you come over after we get back from the Digiworld and ice cream? We'll talk then. And since it's Friday, you can sleep over if you want."

Kari nodded. "Sounds good. I'll call my mom after school and let her know where I'll be."

Yolei tried to keep in a squeal. "Oh! I'm so excited for you, Kari! I can't wait to find out who it is you like!"

Kari laughed at Yolei's enthusiasm. _I can only hope that he likes me the same way I like him… But it's a little far-fetched. We're best friends. And that's probably all we ever will be… friends._

* * *

_Hmm, Kari seems to be having negative thoughts about TK's feelings for her. Is this a one-sided love? Or is it mutual? Will they ever be any more than just friends? Find out next time (or not) in Chapter 6 of... Digimon: Completely Oblivious!_

(Hahaha! I just had to do that! XD)

Okay, I had planned on making this chapter longer, but I decided against it. Sorry for the lack of adventure, but you were told that this was more of a romance chapter! :D Sometime within the next few chapters, I will skip ahead to where TK and Kari are 14 years old. That's when the _real _Takari starts! :D :D :D_ *_gets excited*

Just throwing this out there, I wrote a Taiora! Woot! And I was shocked to see that it had more hits and reviews (it is a one-shot) within the first few _hours _than the first chapter of this story did within the first _day!_ Must be a lot of Taiora fans out there... Anyway, if you are a Taiora fan, please read and review! It is called 'Forever'.

Also, to all of the followers of _this_ story who are_ not_ reviewing, please review! I like getting a lot of reviews! You could tell me how I could improve this story, ask questions and I can answer them in the next chapter, etc. Just don't flame! Remember, this is my first Takari!

Have a nice day/night! **Review!**


	6. Secrets Revealed and Misunderstandings

Hiyas!! Thank you to all of the people that reviewed! (LupineKnight, how could I make this story more detailed? I was basically putting the episode into story form [this is the in the chapter you reviewed], but I'm open to suggestions.) All right, just giving you a fair warning, from here on out, it is COMPLETELY romance!! YAY!!!! (Well, after this chapter, that is.) Enjoy this chapter of the fic!

**Disclaimer**_**:** Me? Own Digimon? That doesn't belong in the same sentence, though I wish it did! The ending for 02 would have been so much better! And season 3 would have picked up where 02 left off! Grrr! (In other words, I don't own Digimon.)_

Chapter 6

(TK's perspective)

TK pulled himself from the pile of humans and Digimon. He rubbed his chest where Cody's elbow had been. He took his D-Terminal out of his pocket and studied the miniature DigiEgg displayed on the screen. That day in the Digital World had been rather… interesting. He and Kari had received their own DigiEggs, allowing Patamon and Gatomon to Digivolve into Pegasusmon and Nefertimon. They had also encountered the Digimon Emperor, and he gave the Digidestined quite a few difficulties.

"Well, now that we're done kicking that Digimon Emperor's butt," Davis said. "Let's go out for ice cream!"

"Hold on," Yolei said, not taking her eyes off of the screen in front of her. TK looked over her shoulder and saw that she was watching a video clip of a news report that had come on TV earlier. The reporter was saying something about a teenaged genius and star soccer player, Ken Ichijouji. _Something about him looks familiar, but not from seeing him on TV… I wonder if… No. There's no way he could be the Digimon Emperor._

The rest of the group gathered around the computer to watch the report. After several minutes of hearing how smart and talented this Ken Ichijouji was, Yolei huffed and closed the window on the computer. "I don't see what's so special about him. I can take apart and put a computer back together just as well as he can!"

"But he's a really good soccer player!" Davis exclaimed. "Maybe he could teach me some of his tricks…"

"Keep dreaming, Davis," Cody said. "He lives in a different part of Japan. I doubt he would come to this part of Tokyo."

Kari cut in before Davis could say anything. "Okay, well if everyone's ready, let's go! I'm ready for ice cream!"

Yolei stood up and turned the computer off. "Let's meet back here tomorrow morning. Maybe we can get some of the older Digidestined to come with us."

TK nodded. "Sure. I'll ask Matt if he wants to come. I'll see you guys in the morning!"

The group bid their farewells as TK and Tokomon exited the building and walked in a different direction than the rest of the group was going. He pulled his cell phone from his backpack's pocket and pressed the speed dial button for his brother.

"Hello?" the voice on the other end said. TK winced. Matt sounded a bit irritated; TK had probably interrupted his band rehearsal. "Uh, hey, Matt. I wasn't interrupting something, was I?"

"TK!" Matt practically shouted. TK heard Matt address his band. "Guys, shut up! I'm on the phone!"

After a moment, Matt spoke up again. "I was just in rehearsal, but it's fine. I always have time to talk to my little brother!"

TK rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Hey, when are you going to be home? I wanna talk to you about something."

"Well, we were almost done with rehearsal, so I can tell everyone to go home and I'll meet you in the park. How's that?"

"Sounds good."

"Uh, TK? What exactly do you want to talk to me about?"

"Um… It's nothing _that_ important. I just need some advice, I guess you could say." TK bit his lip. _Please don't press for more answers, Matt… Not right now…_

"Okay, whatever you say. I'll see you in a few, bro." Matt sighed.

"Yeah, see ya." He flipped the cover closed. He picked up his pace as he headed for the park; if he remembered correctly, Matt would get there before TK since his band met closer to the park.

"You want to talk to Matt about Kari, don't you, TK."

TK looked down at the white hamster-rabbit-type thing in his arms. He had almost forgotten about Tokomon. Tokomon's question was more of a statement than a question.

"Yeah…" TK said. "Now, Tokomon, you shouldn't say anything else until we get to the park. There are still people around, so… just pretend to be a stuffed animal or something. You know, fake a little smile and look cute and be _very_ still. Not to mention _don't talk_." Tokomon nodded slightly and assumed his "stuffed animal" pose.

When they arrived at the park, TK looked around and saw his brother leaning against a tree, his guitar case beside him. Matt pushed away from the tree and gave TK a one-sided hug. "Hey, bro! Hey… Tokomon? When did you get here?"

"Well, we've been going to the Digital World for the past few days and I came with TK when we got back," Tokomon said.

Matt raised an eyebrow. "Who's 'we'?"

"Kari, Yolei, Cody, Davis, Tai, Sora, and me," TK said. "Izzy came with us yesterday, but not today. And Tai and Sora didn't go with us today, since they had practice for their own sports."

"I don't know who Yolei, Cody and Davis are. How have they been going to the Digital World?"

So TK explained everything to Matt. All about how Tai had disappeared the first day into the Digiworld up until the present time. "And, well, here we are."

Matt nodded. "I see. Maybe I can find some time tomorrow to come with you guys."

TK chuckled. "Funny, I was just about to ask you about that."

Matt smiled. "So, what was it you wanted to talk to me about in the first place?"

TK sat down against the tree and Matt sat beside him. TK rested his arms on his knees and looked over the empty park as he spoke. "Well… There's this girl…"

Matt's eyes widened. "You're kidding right? Who are you and what have you done with my brother?!" A serious look from TK made him shut up. "You're not kidding, huh?"

TK shook his head. "Nope. I'm dead serious. There's a girl I like… I like her a lot… But we've been friends for a while, and I'm not sure if I want to confess to her and risk losing our friendship."

Matt nodded his head, taking a moment to think about his answer before answering. "Well, I think it depends on who this girl is; I'm going to need to know who it is before I can give you any advice. Some girls are more different than others, so the answer varies."

TK gulped. Did he _really_ want Matt to know who he was in love with? Heck, he wasn't even sure if it was just a crush or... the other word. TK felt funny even _thinking _about being in love with Kari. "Well… You know her."

Matt smirked. "So, we're going to play our version of twenty questions now, aren't we? All right. Is she older are younger than you?"

"Slightly younger."

"Is she a brunette?"

"Yes."

"Is she short or tall?"

"Short. She comes up to about my chin."

"What color are her eyes?"

"Brown, but they have a sort of reddish tint to them."

Matt thought for a moment, obviously putting the pieces together. His eyebrows shot up. "Have you been best friends with her for about four years and is her name Hikari Kamiya?"

TK's face flushed. "Y-yeah…"

Matt grinned. "It took you long enough!"

TK looked up. "Huh?"

"Everyone knows you have a crush on her! Heck, everyone knew it during our adventures in the Digiworld! We were wondering when you would find out for yourself! If you didn't figure it out by the time you were in high school, I was going to spell it out for you!"

TK tried to laugh at the comment, but Matt's words rang over and over in his head. Everyone? As in _all_ of the Digidestined? _Crap…_ "Um, when you said everyone knew, did you mean…"

Matt shook his head. "No, I only meant that we older kids knew. Trust me, Kari doesn't have the slightest idea!"

TK sighed with relief. "So, what do you think I should do?"

"Well, first you should decide if it's a crush or true love, as corny as it sounds. There is a _big_ difference between a crush and love. You don't want to date her only to find out that it was only a crush and ruin your friendship."

TK rested his head against the tree. "How would you describe love?"

"There isn't really a way _to _explain it. Love is pretty much unexplainable. A crush, on the other hand, can be described in many ways. I think that if you are able to list a ton of reasons why you like a person, it's only a crush. But if you can't explain why, I would have to say that it was love."

TK turned back to Matt. "You sound like an expert on this topic."

Matt shrugged. "Well, I have dated a few times, but those are Sora's words, not mine. I just passed the information along to you."

Matt looked at his watch. "Hey, I think we should be going. Think about your feelings for Kari tonight, and we'll talk tomorrow after we go to the Digiworld."

TK nodded and stood up. He picked up his backpack and Tokomon, who had fallen asleep during the conversation. "Thanks, Matt," he said. "I'll think about it. See you tomorrow."

"Later, Teeks!" Matt called over his shoulder as he walked away.

TK started off in the other direction toward his own apartment. He got so lost in his thoughts that he hardly noticed anyone bump into him on the crowded sidewalks and he almost missed his apartment building when he came to it. He resumed his hard thinking as he rode the elevator up to the eighth floor.

He finally snapped out of his trance when he arrived at his door. He dug in his pocket for his key and turned it in the lock. He kicked his shoes off in his room and set Tokomon down on the bed. He turned back to the family room and picked up the remote. Nothing grabbed his attention as he flicked through the channels, so he turned the TV off and closed his eyes.

TK had no idea how long he was sitting there before his eyes snapped open. "Oh my god. I'm in love with my best friend."

~*~*~*

Yolei led Kari to her room, pointing out the different rooms in the apartment along the way. "Just make yourself at home," she said as she opened the door to her room. "Oh, and ignore my brother and sisters; they tend to get a little obnoxious when I have friends over… though not quite as obnoxious as Davis."

Kari giggled. "I'm sure that if I can handle Davis I can handle your siblings."

The girls released their Digimon from the backpacks and told them to pretend to be stuffed animals if someone came in. Yolei sat on the bed and patted the spot next to her. As soon as Kari had sat down, Yolei blurted, "So?"

Kari stared at her blankly. "So what?"

Yolei rolled her eyes. "So, aren't you going to tell me who it is you like?"

"Oh…" Kari said. She felt a blush creep into her cheeks. "Um… Why don't you try to guess who it is?"

Yolei grabbed a pillow and clutched it in her arms. "Okay… Give me some clues. Is he tall, short? Nerdy or cool? Older or younger than us? Does he play sports?"

"He's tall, pretty cool, he's younger than you but a little older than me, and yes, he plays sports."

"Hmm… I guess I'm going to have to eliminate Cody, since he's pretty short, and Davis since he is nowhere near cool…"

Kari snickered. "Oh, Yolei…"

"Well, it's true! Anyway, since it's someone we both know, it comes down to TK and his friend Chase…" Yolei raised an eyebrow, hoping to get something out of Kari.

Kari nodded, her face growing hotter by the second. "Yes, it's one of them. Now pick the one you think it is."

Yolei pondered it for a moment. "I think you are in love with… TK."

Kari sighed. "Yes…"

Yolei squealed so loud, Salamon, Poromon and Kari had to cover their ears with their hands, and even then it wasn't enough. Someone banged on the door. Yolei stopped and motioned for Poromon and Salamon to be still. "What!" she shouted at whoever was at the door.

The door opened to reveal Yolei's sisters, Momoe and Chizuru. "Hey, what's up with the screaming?" Momoe asked.

"Yeah," Chizuru added. "I bet that everyone within three floors of us heard you, Miyako."

Yolei fumed. "It's none of your business, Momoe. And don't call me 'Miyako', Chizuru. Get out. Now."

The sisters rolled their eyes and exited. Kari turned to Yolei. "Do your sisters always butt in like that?"

Yolei huffed. "Yes. They're so nosy! They don't know how to mind their own business!"

Kari laughed at her friend. Yolei continued, "So… are you going to tell TK about your feelings for him?"

Kari shook her head furiously. "Absolutely not! Not yet, at least. I would rather wait a few years before I tell him."

Yolei gave her a curious glance. "A few _years? _Are you really going to wait that long? I understand you wanting to wait, but can you handle it?"

Kari sighed. "I hope so. I just wonder if he feels the same way about me…"

"I'll try to wheedle some information out of him tomorrow," Yolei said with a devious look in her eyes. "But I'm not making any promises…"

Kari looked up at her friend. "As long as you a least try to talk to him, I don't care if you get an answer or not. We can at least say we tried."

Yolei nodded. The girls spent most of the night talking. Mostly the topic was on the Digital World. Kari told Yolei the story of how the original Digidestined got there and how she came to join the group. Every once in a while, Kari would blush at the memory of the silly things she and TK did when they were only eight years old. Yolei obviously found this cute and a few "Aww!"s came from her. Kari couldn't help but think about how obvious it was that she had a crush on TK when they were kids, and thought about how in the world they had been blind to it.

~*~*~*

TK stared at the ceiling of his bedroom. He hated those times when he was exhausted, yet sleep never came for hours. This was one of those times. He glanced at the alarm clock on his desk. It was a little past 1 AM. Tokomon was asleep beside him, snoring softly, and his mother had gone to sleep as soon as she got home two hours ago. He suspected that the reason he couldn't sleep was because he was still in shock from finding out that he was truly_ in love _with his best friend.

TK sighed. Would Kari ever want to go out with her best friend? He doubted it. It was likely that they would never be anything more than best friends. He thought back to the time they had vowed to be best friends forever…

**FLASHBACK**

_TK reached up and grabbed the tree limb above him. He hoisted himself up and continued upward till he was about halfway up the tree. He watched what was happening below. The Digidestined were meeting in the park in the middle of Odaiba, and they were waiting for Tai, Kari, and Izzy to arrive. He had almost stayed at home that day, but he knew he had to. He knew he had to because that would be the last time he was at a gathering with the Digidestined… at least it would be for a long time. No one had known that one month after they had given up their crests to the Sovereigns, TK would have to leave soon after the gathering held every two months._

"_Hey, TK!" Matt called from down below. TK looked in that direction. Matt pointed to the park entrance. He followed his brother's line of sight and saw Tai, Kari, and Izzy run to the group. TK smiled and climbed down the tree as fast as he could._

"_Hey, guys!" Tai called. "We would've been here sooner, but I couldn't get Izzy off the computer!"_

_The group laughed, knowing all too well how hard it was to get Izzy away from the computer without hearing "I'm almost done! Give me five minutes!" at least ten times._

_The rest of the afternoon in the park went by too quickly for TK's liking. Now he was glad that he had come to the Digidestined reunion; he had a lot of fun and this could be the last time he saw his friends for a long time._

_Matt placed a hand on TK's shoulder and nodded in one direction. TK knew what that meant: he was supposed to take Kari and tell her what was going on while Matt told the rest of the group._

_TK walked over to Kari, who was lying in the grass, staring at the clouds assign by. "Hey, Kari."_

_Kari propped herself up on her elbows and grinned. "Hey, TK! What's up?"_

"_Um… can we talk? Like, farther away from the rest of the group? I need to tell you something…"_

_Kari stood up and pulled him over to the tree he was climbing earlier. "Sure!"_

_TK smiled to himself. He would miss Kari a lot. She was so happy and enthusiastic all the time; it would be hard to not miss her. He followed the girl up the tree and sat down on a limb beside her._

"_So, what did you want to talk about?" Kari asked._

"_Well, I was, uh, going to tell you… that this will be the last time… we see each other for a while." TK choked out. This was becoming harder and harder to say._

_Kari's ever-present smile dissolved. "What do you mean?"_

"_I mean… I have to move. My mom's boss is making her move, and I can't stay with my dad, so I have to go with her." TK looked over to where the rest of the Digidestined were. Their cheery moods had disappeared. Mimi was crying, Sora was trying to comfort her, Joe was cleaning his glasses with his shirt after getting them fogged up from tears, Tai buried his fists in his pockets and looked down, and Izzy shook his head sadly. _

_Tears flowed down Kari's cheeks. "You can't go! All of us will miss you too much! You're sure you can't stay with your dad and Matt?"_

_TK looked at his hands gripping the tree limb. He couldn't stand to see Kari cry. "I asked my mom… she said that we can't do that because Dad isn't my legal guardian. And she can't fly from Kyoto every weekend to come get me."_

"_So, you're moving to Kyoto? That's a long way away… And I thought you lived far away now! Tokyo is pretty close compared to how far away Kyoto is!"_

"_Yeah… Hey, Kari?"_

_Kari sniffled. "Yeah?"_

"_I think we should make a promise… to be best friends forever."_

"_I thought we already were best friends forever!"_

"_We are, but it's official if we make a promise."_

"_Oh. Okay, let's do it." Kari swiped at the tears dangling off of her chin and attempted to smile._

_TK placed his right hand over his heart. "Repeat after me, only use your name instead of mine. I, TK Takaishi…"_

"_I, Kari Kamiya…"_

"_Promise to be best friends with Kari Kamiya…"_

"_Promise to be best friends with TK Takaishi…"_

"_For the rest of our lives. I will never forget about her…"_

"_For the rest of our lives. I will never forget about him…"_

"_And I promise to always be there when she needs me. No matter how far away we are from each other."_

"_And I promise to always be there when he needs me. No matter how far away we are from each other."_

_TK removed his hand from his chest. "Now, we hug to seal the vow."_

_Kari wrapped her arms around his waist. He returned the hug, not wanting to let go of his best friend. "Can you visit?" Kari asked after a few moments. _

_They released their hug before TK answered. "I'll try. I know Mom said that we can visit sometimes when I'm out of school, during the summer, and Christmas, so we'll see each other then."_

_Kari smiled. "I guess that's fair enough."_

_They climbed down the tree and the other Digidestined bombarded TK with hugs. Mimi almost crushed his bones from hugging him so hard and he was left gasping for air afterwards. Tai was the last of the group to give TK a goodbye hug. He whispered in the younger boy's ear. "You've always been like a little brother to all of us. We're gonna miss you a lot, buddy. Don't forget about us." Tai winked and ruffled his hair._

_As TK and Matt walked off, TK looked back at Kari and waved. She waved back and shouted, "See you when you some to visit!"_

_**END FLASHBACK**_

Little did she know that the next time he would visit would be four years later. And even then it wouldn't be a visit. He was there to stay.

~*~*~*

"Is everyone okay?" Matt asked when he pulled himself from the pile. "And, uh, do you guys _always_ land like this when you come back?"

"Yes." Everyone, human and Digimon alike, said with annoyed tones of voice.

"Holy crap!"

Everyone jumped and turned to see TK's friend, Chase, standing on the other side of the computer lab. _Dang…_ TK thought.

"Uh, hey, Chase… How long have you been there?" TK asked.

Chase stared at the in-training Digimon on the floor or in the arms of their partners. "I saw you guys come in the school, wondered what you were doing here on a Saturday, and followed you inside," he said without looking up. "I saw a big flash come from the lab and when I got here, no one was around, but your backpacks were here, so I decided to wait for you. I guess my curiosity got the best of me and I stayed here for the whole four hours you were… wherever you were. Where the heck did you come from, anyway?"

Yolei sighed. "So much for keeping it a secret…" she mumbled. "It's a place called the Digital World."

Chase continued to stare. So, everyone took turns in explaining what the Digiworld was, why they went there, and so on. When they finished an hour later, Chase was still standing there with a dumbfounded look on his face. "So, that's what you meant when you said you were hanging out with old friends," he said to TK.

TK nodded. "Yeah. Oh, there's one more thing you need to know about the Digital World."

"What's that?" Chase asked.

"You can't say anything of it to anyone," Matt said. "And I mean _anyone_. Only us and a few other people we will introduce you to. The Digiworld could be put in much more danger than it already is if someone else finds out about it."

Chase nodded. "Got it. I should probably be going, but I'll see you guys on Monday. See ya!" With that, he took one last look at the Digimon and disappeared around the corner of the hall.

They all sighed. "Well," Matt said. "Let's hope no one else happens to follow us the next time we go to the Digiworld. Things could get really complicated."

The group nodded their heads in agreement. Matt picked up Tsunomon. He continued, "We should all be going, too. It's getting a little late and we don't want any of our parents having heart attacks, now do we?"

TK and Matt exited the building directly behind the others. "Hey, bro, why don't you come over to my place? We can talk about your situation with you-know-who," Matt whispered in TK's ear. TK nodded and flashed a thumbs-up. It would be nice to talk to his brother about his discovery… his discovery about his love for Kari.

~*~*~*

Monday came too fast for Kari's liking. Maybe it was because she had spent most of Sunday considering whether or not she should confess to TK. She didn't want to ruin their friendship, but it was becoming more and more difficult to keep this secret to herself. _It's so confusing!_ Kari thought as she threw her history book in her locker after the last bell rang. After her talk with Yolei on Friday night, she had taken into consideration confessing to TK. She debated on it one last time as she walked in one direction, not really paying attention to where she was going. She didn't realize until she was on the other side of the school that she was heading for TK's locker. She stopped at the corner of the hallway. TK's locker was just down the next hall. Not many people were around, since most of them were at the front of the school, but there were still a few around. Her mental debate was interrupted by a feminine voice, a flirtatious voice.

"Hey, TK!" Kari cringed. _Great. It's _that_ girl. I hate her…_

"Huh? Oh, uh, hi… Sukeira."

"I was wondering if you wanted to go out to the movies this weekend? Like… on a date?" Sukeira asked. Kari's jaw dropped and her hand flew to her mouth, trying to hold in a scream. _Please say no! Please tell that snob that you won't go on a date with her!_ She peeked around the corner. There was TK, standing at his locker with Chase and Davis. They were all preparing to leave for the basketball tryouts. Kari almost laughed at Davis, since he was only doing it to try to impress her, but due to the situation she couldn't make a sound.

"Huh?" Kari couldn't tell who TK was talking to: Sukeira or his other friends? He was facing all three of them, so it was hard to tell. Chase said something to TK, but not loud enough for Kari to hear. "Oh, uh, sure. That sounds great."

Sukeira beamed. "Great! I'll see you later, then! We can set up a time after tryouts!" She turned and left before TK could reply. TK had said something else, but Kari didn't bother to try and listen, because she was already running down the hall from which she had come before, tears streaming down her cheeks. No one noticed a sobbing girl bolt out the school's double doors. _I knew it. I knew he didn't like me that way… I knew we would never be anything more than friends._

~*~*~*

TK stood at his locker with Chase and Davis. They were all getting ready to go to the gym for basketball tryouts. Davis had signed up at the last second because he wanted to impress Kari, though he wouldn't admit it.

"Hey, TK!"

TK cringed. _Crap, not her again. Can't I get her off my back?_ "So, uh, should we be going guys?" he asked Chase and Davis, pretending to not hear the girl that was nearing them. Davis raised an eyebrow and Chase pointed at the girl. He mentally exploded. _Gee, thanks, Chase. I was trying to get out of talking to her and then you try to make me talk to her. You're the best. _"Huh? Oh, uh, hi…" Darn! He forgot her name! Davis mouthed her name. 'Sukeira' he silently said. "…Sukeira."

"I was wondering if…" Sukeira started. TK didn't hear most of what she said, because he was trying to listen to what Davis was saying to him. "...date?" Sukeira went on.

"Huh?" The question was directed to Davis, since he couldn't hear what he was saying since both he and Sukeira were talking about.

"I asked if…" Sukeira said, but TK tuned her voice out, trying to listen to Chase, who was saying, "Davis was asking if you wanted to go with us and some other guys for pizza after tryouts."

"Oh, uh, sure. That sounds great," he said. Sukeira grinned, but he had no idea why. It wasn't like he was paying attention to anything she said. He honestly didn't like her in the least, since she was always trying to flirt with him and she was a complete snob, so he tried to tune her out whenever he could.

"Great!" Sukeira went on. "I'll…" TK tuned her out again; he didn't want to hear anything she had to say. She turned and left.

TK turned back to his friends. "What the heck did she want?"

Davis shrugged. "I dunno. I've figured out how to ignore her completely so I hardly noticed she was there. I don't see why anyone would want anything to do with that spoiled brat."

Chase shook his head. "I don't either. I guess we should figure out what she wanted from us later; we'll be late for tryouts if we don't leave now."

TK and Davis nodded and headed downstairs. TK caught a glimpse of Kari running out the front doors of the school with tears cascading down her cheeks, but he was the only one who noticed. Chase, Davis, and a few people who had not left the school yet had no idea she was still there. TK furrowed his brow. _I wonder what's wrong with Kari? I need to call her after tryouts and see what's up. I hope nothing tragic happened. _Indeed, it was something tragic, but only in Kari's eyes and her heart, though no one knew why yet.

* * *

Aww, poor Kari! :( Well, that's it for this chapter!

I don't think there any author's notes, so I'll end with the usual... **Don't forget to review!! **(And I want to see some reviews from _you silent readers who don't review!!)_

Press the button! Press it! You're getting warmer... warmer... WARMER!!!... You're boiling!! YES!!! RIGHT THERE!! YOU'RE ON FIRE!! CLICK IT CLICK IT CLICK IT!!!!!


	7. I Care About You

I'm back! Thanks for the reviews, guys... and girls! Okay, I noticed that there was a slight misunderstanding in the last chapter. TK did _not _agree to go on a date with Sukeira. He wasn't even paying attention to what she was saying. [Don't worry, I wouldn't make him _that_ evil. ;)] Read that part of the chapter more closely if you still don't understand.

Okay, this is the longest chapter so far! :D It's about 20 pages on my word document on Comic Sans in size 12. :) Yay! Maybe that will make up for how long it took for me to make this chapter. I started on one chapter, but I decided to add this chapter, so that's why it took so long. Also because I was too upset to write yesterday, because I found out that some close friends of mine are moving away. :( Anyway, enough of my rambling...

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Digimon, the characters, or dialogue used from the episode this chapter is based on.

Chapter 7

Kari ran the whole way home. Tears blurred her vision as she ran, trying to avoid people and trying to keep from stumbling over her own two feet. She ran up the stairs to her apartment instead of taking the elevator. She ran to the end of the hall where her apartment was and threw the door open. She kept running, even after she was inside her home, to her room while ignoring her mother calling after her. "Kari? What's wrong, honey? Kari! If you would stop running we could talk about what's bothering you!"

That was the last thing Kari heard before she slammed the bedroom door. That was exactly the last thing she wanted to do; she wanted to avoid talking about this at all costs. She sank to the floor and sobbed some more. Mostly because of the heartbreak she had just suffered, but partly because her legs were throbbing painfully from running from the school, down the busy streets of Odaiba, up eight flights of stairs, and all the way to her room.

"Kari?" This time it was Salamon who was talking to her. The puppy-Digimon jumped off the bed and came over to where her partner was curled up in the floor. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

Koromon jumped down from the top bunk. "Did someone hurt you? I can tell Tai and he can beat that person up in a heartbeat!"

Kari attempted to smile at the pink blob staring at her with wide eyes. "I'd rather not talk about it right now," she said. "Thanks anyway. But I don't think I want Tai to beat this person up. He did nothing wrong; I'm just a little depressed about it, that's all."

Salamon gave an encouraging smile to Kari. "We're all ears when you're ready to talk." Kari picked up the little Digimon and hugged her close. "Thanks," she whispered. She stood up on wobbly legs and let Salamon hop down from her arms. She collapsed on the bed and stared at the floor for a while. She thought about what she and TK could've been if she had said something sooner. The tears came flowing out again like a waterfall. She didn't know how long she sat there crying, but eventually she fell asleep. She dreamed of one person and one alone: TK Takaishi.

~*~*~*

TK threw his gym bag on the floor next to his backpack. He was exhausted; he hadn't expected tryouts to be so rough. He fell backwards onto the bed and thought about what Sukeira had told him earlier:

"_I'll see you on Friday!" she had said._

_TK gave her a questioning look. "Um, is there anything special going on Friday?"_

_Sukeira cocked her head. "Are you forgetting already? We have a date this Friday. We set it up before tryouts."_

TK groaned. He had to come up with some excuse to get out of a date with Sukeira. _Oh, I'll figure something out. In the meantime, I should call Kari and see what's up with her. She was really upset about something. I hope she's okay. _

He picked up the cordless phone on the side table next to his bed. He dialed the familiar number and waited for an answer. On the sixth ring, the line picked up. He opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by the voicemail. _"Hello! This is Kari! I can't come to the phone right now, but I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Just leave a message and I'll call you back. Have a nice day!" _TK sighed. He left a message for her. "Hey, Kari. It's TK. I saw you run out of the school earlier today and was wondering if you were all right. You were really upset about something and I was worried. I'm always here if you want to talk. See ya."

He ended the call. He had a gut feeling that something was going to go wrong very soon.

~*~*~*

Kari woke up about an hour and a half later. She didn't feel like getting up. Her eyes were swollen and red from crying, so her eyes felt horrible. Her legs still ached a little, adding to her excuse for not getting up. But worst of all her heart ached terribly. She sighed. As much as she tried to throw her thoughts about TK away, they came flying back at her like a boomerang. She buried her face in her arms. As she did so, the bright colors of the room faded to gray. A strange fog formed in the room and even the sun seemed to fizzle out, but Kari noticed none of this.

A knock sounded at the door. She lifted her head from her arms and her eyes widened. The colors came back, the sun shone again brightly, and the fog disappeared. _I must have been imagining things…_ she thought. She cleared her throat, but that didn't help her hoarse voice. "Come in," she called softly.

Tai walked in. Kari didn't understand why he would knock to enter his own room, but she didn't bother to ask at the moment. "Hey, sis," he said. He sat at the foot of her bed. "Mom said something was bothering you and asked me to try to talk to you. Something up?"

Kari sighed again and closed her eyes. "I really don't want to talk right now. Maybe later."

Tai nodded. "I understand… If this is about TK, then I have a feeling you'll be in for a shock one of these days, even if it's a few years from now."

She opened her eyes again. "What are you talking about? What do you mean 'in for a shock'?"

Tai stood up and headed for the door again. "I was just saying that you should remember that things aren't always as they seem. I don't know what happened, but just remember that little piece of information."

*^*^*

(Tai's perspective)

Tai shut the door behind him before his sister could say anything. His mother was waiting for him in the living room. She looked up. "Did she tell you anything?"

Tai shook his head. "No. I don't think she will want to talk about it for a while."

His mother nodded. "Well, we'll just wait until she is ready to talk. In the meantime, I'll get started on dinner."

Tai gulped. "Uh, actually, Mom, I was planning on going over to see Sora. Maybe I can get her to talk to Kari, since she tells Sora a lot of things and they're like sisters, it might be easier for Kari to talk to her instead."

Mrs. Kamiya nodded again. "Okay, but don't be gone too long. I want you home before dark."

Tai turned and headed for the door. "Got it. See ya!" He ran down the stairs of the apartment building, not bothering to wait for the elevator. He almost ran head-on into Yolei. "Oh, hey, Yolei. You looking for Kari? She's up in her room," Tai said.

"I was just wondering where Kari had gone off to," Yolei said. "She was supposed to come over to my place after school and she didn't show up."

Tai shrugged. "All I know is that she's really upset about something. My mom said that she ran into the apartment and straight into our room. She hasn't spoken a word since, save for a very few words when I tried to talk to her."

Yolei furrowed her brow. "Would you mind if I try to talk to her? She might be more comfortable talking to a girl close to her age."

"Sure, go ahead. The door should be unlocked, so just go right in. I was going to Sora's for that same reason, but let me know if she tells you anything."

Yolei nodded in agreement and took off to the elevator. Tai continued on his way to the flower shop where his girlfriend helped her mother. He shoved his hands in his pockets and pondered what could have made his little sister so sad. There wasn't much she _wouldn't_ tell him, so it had to be something pretty serious. He was so lost in thought that he almost walked right past the flower shop. He pushed the door open and searched for Sora.

"She's in the back, Tai," Mrs. Takenouchi said. Tai thanked her and walked farther back into the shop. He found Sora watering the flowers and humming a sweet melody. She abruptly stopped and looked up to see who had walked in and smiled. "Hey, Tai!" she said.

He returned the smile. "Hey, Sor. I was wondering if you could talk to Kari for me."

Sora set the watering can on the counter. "Sure, but why do you want me to talk to her? Is there some tension between you two or something?"

"No, nothing like that. It's just that she's really upset about something and I thought she might be more comfortable talking to you about it since you two are really close," Tai explained.

Sora nodded. "I see. Do you think it has something to do with you-know-who?"

Tai shrugged. "Maybe. We'll just wait and see. I ran into Yolei on the way over here. I asked her to talk to Kari, too. I hope things are going well…"

~*~*~*

Yolei knocked on the bedroom door for the third time. This time, the door swung open slightly and she could see Koromon staring up at her. She motioned to the door, asking to come in without saying a word. Koromon nodded and Yolei opened the door just a bit more so she could squeeze through. She shut the door behind her and sat on the edge of the bed where Kari was lying. "Hey, Kari," she said in barely more than a whisper. "How are you?"

"Grumpfl." Came the reply.

"Come again? I'm afraid I didn't quite catch that."

Kari lifted her face off the pillow, revealing her crimson eyes puffy from crying. "I said 'awful'," she said hoarsely.

Yolei shook her head at the sight of her best friend. "I can see that. You want to talk about what's bothering you?"

Kari groaned. "Did Tai tell you to come see me? He asked the same thing…"

"Well, yes, he did. But I guarantee you that I would have come to talk to you even if he hadn't asked me to. You were supposed to come over to my house today, but you never showed. What's up?"

Kari looked down at her tear-soaked pillow. "You know that Sukeira girl at school?"

Yolei rolled he eyes at the mention of the girl's name. "Yeah, I know her. She's the snobbiest girl in the school and torments every girl who happens to like the same guy she likes. What about her? She didn't say something bad to you, did she?" she added as an afterthought.

"No. Not yet at least." Kari shook her head. "She asked TK to go out with her this weekend… and he agreed to."

Yolei's jaw dropped. She recalled the day she had asked TK about his feelings for Kari. She had been forced to promise that she would not tell Kari, but she had a plan to get them together, so it wasn't like it had mattered at the time. She remembered the conversation clearly:

**FLASHBACK**

"_Hey, TK!" Yolei called to the blonde boy in front of her on the sidewalk._

_TK turned around and flashed a grin. "Hey, Yolei. What's up?"_

"_Not much," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "I have to work at my parents' store, so I figured I would delay it a bit by walking with you… If that's all right, of course."_

_TK smiled again. "Of course it's all right. In fact, I kind of wanted to talk to you about something…"_

"_Oh?" Yolei hoped that this was going where she thought it was going: Kari. "Well, fire away."_

_TK sighed heavily, obviously growing nervous about something. "I was, uh, wondering, since, you know, you're a girl and all… how I should ask a girl out…"_

_Yolei grinned from ear-to-ear. "I am honored that you would ask for my advice, my dear TK." This made TK lighten up a little and laugh at the term of endearment. It was a friendly gesture, nothing more, so he didn't mind. "May I ask who this girl is?" she continued._

"_Uh… well, it's-"_

"_Kari, I presume?"_

_TK's jaw dropped. "How did you know?"_

_Yolei laughed in triumph. "Score! I got you to admit it!"_

_TK's face flushed. "Yeah, it's Kari. I'm not sure if I should ask her out, though. I mean… I wouldn't want to ruin our friendship if she said no. I'm wondering if I should wait."_

_She pondered it for a moment. "Well, personally, I think you should wait a while. You just got back together with her a couple of weeks ago, and if she does say no, which I highly doubt she will, you don't want to end your friendship so soon. But do what your heart tells you to do, TK. Don't let other people tell you what you should do. If you really love her, you will do what your heart tells you to do."_

_TK nodded. "Hey, will you promise that you won't say any of this to Kari?"_

"_I promise."_

**FLASHBACK END**

Yolei had a hard time understanding what had happened for TK to have agreed to go on a date with Sukeira. She didn't understand it at all. _Man, I really need to ask TK what's going on._

"Kari," she began. "I'm sure that this is a really big misunderstanding… I mean, seriously, who would want to even talk to _that_ girl?"

"TK would," Kari said, throwing her face back onto the wet pillow.

Yolei shook her head. "You're pitiful. I think that this is a misunderstanding, because TK isn't the type of guy to really like snobby girls." _Also because he loves you, not her. _She thought, but didn't say out loud.

Kari groaned into her pillow. Yolei checked her watch. "Listen, I have to go, but if you want to talk or if you need anything, just call. I'll see you later, Kari."

Yolei headed for the door and took one last look at Kari. Her face was still buried in the pillow and the patch of wet cloth had spread farther outwards from the girl's tears. Yolei sighed. _I only hope that this is a misunderstanding. If not, then we've got a problem. _She proceeded to open the door and looked down. Salamon looked up at her. She knelt down to the Digimon's eye level and whispered, "If you need me to get her out of the house sometime, outside of school, that is, just have Tai call me. I'll figure something out."

The puppy-like Digimon nodded. Yolei could tell that she was worried. She scratched Salamon's furry head. "She'll be fine; don't worry about her. Just be encouraging and try to cheer her up when you can. She can't be depressed forever."

Salamon nodded and jumped back to her partner. Yolei stood and closed the door behind her. _"She can't be depressed forever._" She hoped that her own words were true.

~*~*~*

Kari lay in bed that night, staring at the wall. Her pillow was still wet from earlier, so she had turned it over to the dry side, only to find that the edges were soaked from the tears that had managed to spill over the sides. She didn't think that the dampness was keeping her awake, nor her distress about TK, but something else that was bothering her. The mysterious fog that was in her room that afternoon had come back after Yolei had left. It only came when she was alone, for the most part, and disappeared when someone came in the room. She was worried that it would come back, now that everyone else in her home was asleep. She had to check the bunk above hers to make sure that Tai was asleep, since, for once, he wasn't snoring. He tended to sleep silently when he was worried about something; usually it was Kari who he was worried about.

Her thoughts turned to TK. Tears welled up in her eyes. The fog returned and, this time, she saw blood red eyes appear in the fog. She gasped and sat bolt upright, hitting her head on the bottom of the bunk above her. "Ow!" she yelped in pain.

She heard Tai stirring. The fog, and the eyes, disappeared and she heard Tai's groggy voice. "Kari? You alright?"

She rubbed the spot on her head where she had hit her head. "Uh, y-yeah… Just, um, woke up from a bad dream and hit my head on the bunk. I'll be fine." She lay back down and closed her eyes. At least, she was hoping this was all a bad dream…

~*~*~*

Well, it turned out to be bad dreams _and_ reality. The strange fog and the red eyes haunted her dreams and followed her, most of the time when she was alone. But over the next few days, it was coming more often. Her nightmares were becoming more ominous with every night and she felt eyes watching every move she made. She was afraid to be alone for a long period of time. She even asked other girls to go to the bathroom with her during school hours so she wouldn't be alone.

The day after the first incident with the fog, the dreams had only gotten worse. On Wednesday, the fog hung low on the streets, though only Kari seemed to notice it. On Thursday, at cheerleading tryouts, she was in the back line of the formation. She felt eyes boring into the back of her head. When she turned around, only the wall stared back at her. The coach was at the front, so it could not have been her. By now, Kari had crawled right to the edge of sanity. _I'm losing it, _she thought.

Things got really bad on Friday. She was sitting in her first class. She was taking notes and stopped all of a sudden. She felt something wet at her feet and it was inching up her legs. She looked down and stifled a gasp. Dark, murky water was halfway up her legs, but no one else seemed to notice. _Wait a minute,_ she thought and looked around. _Where is everybody? And did someone flood the boys' bathroom again?_

"Kari?" she heard her name being called by another girl in the class.

Glowing red eyes appeared in front of her.

"Hey, Kari, snap out of it!" That was Davis.

"_Kariiii…" _A voice hissed. It was coming from the direction of the set of eyes staring back at her.

"Kari!" TK.

"_Come help ussssss… Be our queen. Save us from our captivity." _She lost it. She fainted, right there, and as this happened, the colors returned to her world and the students reappeared in the classroom. They all gasped as she fell limp in her seat and toppled over. Another girl jumped up and caught her before she could hit the floor.

The teacher said something about going to see the nurse, but Kari wasn't really paying attention. She nodded and slowly started for the door, finding it hard to move her legs. She leaned against the wall in the hallway as she heard the classroom door click shut. _I'm just tired. I haven't been sleeping well lately…_ she tried to convince herself.

She turned the corner of the hallway to the nurse's office but stopped dead in her tracks. She felt the water again at her feet, and the fog was returning. She heard whispered voices, snakelike and desperate. She hesitantly turned around and saw several sets of eyes at the end of the hallway, where she had been only moments before. They drew closer to her. Kari screamed and ran away from whatever was following her.

~*~*~*

TK tapped his eraser quietly on his textbook. Kari never returned to their first period class, and she still hadn't shown up halfway through second period. He was starting to get worried. _She was acting a little strange this morning on the way to school… She was on edge._

TK's thoughts were far from the lesson for the rest of the period and he gladly jumped up from his seat as soon as the bell rang. He shoved his book into his backpack and followed the rest of the students out the door. He fast-walked to Kari's locker, even though his was on the other side of the school and he needed to get his books for his next class. He didn't care if he was late. He just wanted to see if his best friend was okay. She wasn't just his best friend; she was the girl he loved, giving him all the more reason to be worried about her. When he reached her locker, she wasn't there. He tapped a girl on the shoulder. The girl looked up from fiddling with the lock on her locker.

"Yes?" She asked. TK recognized her as a student from the photography class that Kari was in.

"Have you seen Kari around?" He asked. The girl shook her head.

"Not since this morning. She might be sick; she wasn't looking good this morning."

TK sighed. "Oh, well, thanks anyway…" He turned and made his way to his own locker, deciding to look for Kari later.

The day dragged on for him, and he didn't see Kari in the hallways nor in any of the classes he shared with her. He grew even more worried with every class. In gym he could hardly focus on the game, which happened to be basketball, his favorite sport.

The coach blew the whistle. "Takaishi! Focus! We can't have the team captain zoned out when we aren't even in practice! We're in gym class for heaven's sake! Don't let your teammates down!"

TK, try as he might, still struggled to focus throughout the rest of the game, though he managed to pull it off. As soon as the bell rang, he made a beeline for the locker room to change. He made it in and out in record time and ran through the halls of the school, searching for Kari.

He looked in the girls' bathroom, the computer room, the library, and the nurse's office, where Kari was told to go that morning but he couldn't find her. He shook his head as he left the computer room. "Looks like she's just disappeared…"

He bolted out of the computer room and ran down the empty hallways. _She might be in trouble! She might be in danger! She might be… _He skidded to a stop and looked out the window. "Right there!" There was Kari, sitting on a bench outside the school. He hurried down the stairs, stumbling a few times and out the front doors. He turned the corner and Kari was still sitting there, staring at her hands folded in her lap. He heaved a sigh of relief. "Kari, where have you been? I've been looking all over for you!"

"It was weird," Kari mumbled. "I was at the beach."

TK cocked an eyebrow. "You ditched school?"

Kari attempted to laugh, but she failed. "No, silly. The beach in another dimension. You saw me this morning; I was just sitting there and the next thing I knew, I was in the ocean."

"…Now you've totally lost me."

Kari continued. "And then, on my way to the nurse's office, it happened again. I was surrounded by water and… I saw one of _them_."

TK was completely confused. "What do you mean 'one of them'?"

"Digimon. They keep trying to take me to their world… I-I don't know if I can resist anymore." Her voice cracked.

TK clenched his fists. He was determined not to let anything take her away. "You've got to!"

Kari shook her head. "I can't TK. I'm sorry, but I'm just not strong like my brother."

TK furrowed his brow. "So you're just going to quit? Give up, just like that? Listen Kari, I care about you too much to let anyone take you without a fight!"

Kari jerked her head up. She gasped. _Darn it,_ he thought. _I slipped._ "Uh… Sorry, but I have to go now… I'll see you later?"

He slowly backed away, and as soon as he turned the corner, he ran for the front door of the school building. The whole way there he was mentally slapping himself. _I'm such an idiot for running away like that. Idiot. Idiot. Idiot._

~*~*~*

TK's words rang in her head. _"I care about you too much to take you without a fight!" _ Did he really care about her in _that_ way, or was she assuming too much? She hung her head in disappointment as TK walked away. She really wanted to be near him right now, but she wasn't going to say anything.

She sat there a moment longer and picked up her backpack, walking toward the street. She stopped at the street and stared at the sand and water about ten yards away. "The beach…" She felt herself being pulled to it and subconsciously crossed the street, not aware that a car was driving in that direction past the speed limit in the school area. The car passed by her not even a moment after she reached the other side. She halted. She felt funny, like static was running all across her body. The sensation grew worse and worse until she felt like nothing.

She regained her senses and found herself at the beach that had been haunting her dreams all week. The same place with the murky water and grey sand. The place with no sun, no color, no trace of life. She looked around but saw nothing familiar. "Tai? TK? Yolei! Somebody help me!"

~*~*~*

TK entered the computer room, his thoughts anywhere but on the subject of whatever his friends were talking about. He dragged his feet toward the window. Tokomon popped his head up from someone's backpack. TK, in all of his worry for Kari, had almost forgotten that they had brought the Digimon to school that morning and left them in the computer lab until after school.

"TK," Tokomon said. "What's the matter? You look kind of down."

TK shook his head. "It's nothing… really."

Just then, the door flew open and a panting Salamon burst in. "Kari… she's disappeared… I was watching… her from a tree… and she just… disappeared into thin air… Just like that."

TK's eyes widened. He joined the Davis and Cody in watching Yolei type frantically at the keyboard.

"There's no way she could just vanish into thin air!" Davis exclaimed. "She's gotta be in the Digital World and she probably needs us! We'd better hurry. She might be in a lot of danger!"

"It's not that easy," TK said. "She might not be in the Digiworld."

"Are you crazy?" Davis practically shouted. Cody started to say something but was cut off be Yolei.

"It's no use. Right now, the system can't even pinpoint Kari's location."

"We can't waste any more time," Davis continued. "We'll just have to go into the Digiworld and look for her ourselves."

"Davis, I don't think-" Cody started.

"Now is the time for action. Yolei open the gate."

"Would you all stop talking!" Cody shouted. All talking ceased. He calmed down a bit. "It makes no sense to open the gate until we can target Kari's exact location. The Digiworld is gigantic and she could be anywhere! If we go without any hint of her exact location, we could get lost too!"

TK shook his head. "She's not in the Digiworld." All eyes turned on him. "The beach… That's where she is!" He turned and ran out of the room with Tokomon and Salamon frantically trying to keep up. He didn't stop running until he reached the beach. He put both hands to the sides of his mouth and shouted, "Kari!"

~*~*~*

Kari walked along the strange beach, taking note of a few run-down houses. "This place would be a nice place… if there were sunlight… and people."

She looked off into the distance. She noticed a lighthouse, but it was slightly different. "What kind of lighthouse shines dark light?"

~*~*~*

TK kept walking despite the calls of the Digimon. "TK! Wait up!" He kept walking. "Yeah, TK! We can't go as fast as you!" He finally stopped and clenched his fists until they shook. "This is all my fault!" He shouted. He felt Salamon and Tokomon crash into the back of his legs. They looked up at him with wide eyes. He continued, "I knew something was wrong with her. She needed my help and I let her down! If I hadn't left her by herself none of this would have happened!"

Tokomon tried to comfort his partner. "Come on, TK! Let's go to the Digital World."

"She's not there! I saw her disappearing in class. She's in a different dimension." He looked down at his Digivice lying in his hand. "And this stupid piece of junk isn't helping!" He just growled and continued down the beach.

~*~*~*

"There's not even a hot dog stand on this beach…" Kari mumbled. She saw a type of door carved into the rock ahead of her. "There's a doorway. Maybe that's the way out of this stupid world."

She heard her name being called as she neared the doorway. The voices seemed familiar somehow. _"Kari… Kari… Kari… Kari…"_

~*~*~*

TK stopped again. They had been searching for Kari for an hour and still had no idea where she was. "I wish we had more of a clue as to where she went!"

"Well, what did she say?" Tokomon asked.

"'The beach'. She kept saying something about the beach…" _We're never gonna find her!_ He thought.

"TK, don't be so worried about her," Salamon said. "Kari's one tough kid. We have to believe she can take care of herself until we can find her."

TK thought about what the small Digimon said. _She's right!_ "Yeah, you're right, Salamon. Thanks! Let's keep looking. She's gotta be around here somewhere…"

~*~*~*

The doorway turned out to be the entrance to a cave. Kari called out, "Hello? Anybody in here?" Her voice echoed off the stone walls. The cave just seemed to go on and on. _Coming in here has got to be the worst idea I have ever had. _

"_Kari…"_ the voices came again.

She gasped and halted.

"_Help ussssss…" _Red eyes appeared in front of her.

"Get back!" She shouted, trying to sound confident even though her voice shook. "I play a lot of soccer, so I know how to kick!"

"_Help ussssss…" _

"What do you want from me?!"

~*~*~*

Davis slapped his fist down on the table. "I don't care what TJ says! I know Kari's in the Digiworld and I'm gonna save her instead of digging up clams on that stupid sandy beach!"

He held his Digivice up to the computer screen. "Here I come, Kari! Digiport open!" Nothing happened. "I just changed the stupid batteries! Digiport open!" Again, nothing happened. He brought his fist down on the table again. "Argh!"

~*~*~*

"You guys don't look so well…" Kari stared at the creatures. She couldn't get a very good look at them, but she could tell that they were in pain. "So, what are you? Are you Digimon?"

"_Digi… ugh…"_ One of them said.

Another one continued. _"I don't know if we're Digimon, but I know that we're Scubamon. We have no idea how we got down here, nor how long we've been in this tunnel."_

"You poor things…" Kari said. She wasn't sure if she should feel sympathy for them or not. There was something about them that made her keep her distance. "What happened to you?"

"_We don't remember. One day we were serving our undersea master, and the next minute we were here. And we feel terrible!"_

"This is awful! Who would do something like this? Why not go back to the ocean?"

The Scubamon held out its arm. "_We can't. A dark man came into our master's kingdom and put these dark spirals on our arms that stole our strength and made us all his slaves."_

Kari knew exactly what it was talking about. "The Digimon Emperor!"

"_That's why we summoned you. You are our only hope."_

"Huh?" She took a step back. She didn't like where this was going.

"_You have to help us. You are very powerful. Enough to free us from the dark spirals! We've used to last of our strength to get you here. Please, help us return to the ocean where we can serve our master!"_

"I don't know what I could possibly do to help." Kari took another step back. _So it was them who brought me here._

"_Help ussssss! Help ussssss!"_ They all called out.

Kari hesitantly took a few steps to the first Digimon. She got down on her knees. "I-I'll do my best. But I don't know if I'm strong enough…"

She pulled on the spiral on the Scubamon's arm, but it wouldn't budge. It suddenly glowed with a strange purple light and the ground shook. She gasped and looked at the ceiling. The bricks started to fall off the crumbling walls. She shot to her feet. "Come on, everybody! Let's get out of here!"

She was the last one out of the tunnel. She coughed from all of the dust that flew out of the tunnel behind her. She heard something screech and she looked up. Some kind of flying sea monster circled above.

"That is a servant to the dark one who put these rings on us," a Scubamon said. It actually sounded normal now that they were out of the strange tunnel.

The flying Digimon came back around and shot a volley of dark gasses at the Scubamon. Kari screamed when it narrowly missed her. "We're sitting ducks here!" Tears welled in her eyes as fear began to overtake her. "And I can't fight without my friends!"

~*~*~*

"Kari!" TK shouted over a cliff. No response, of course.

Salamon and Tokomon stood behind him. Salamon looked at him strangely. "I think he just went crazy," she said quietly. Tokomon jumped over to the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean and shouted with TK, "Kari!" over and over again.

Salamon just stood there. "They've both flipped!"

~*~*~*

Kari sat on the sand. "I feel so helpless. My brother would know what to do… I need you, Tai!" Her brother's face flashed in her mind. He was always so confident, so brave. "Salamon…" The little Digimon also appeared in her mind. She was always there to encourage Kari. "TK!"

~*~*~*

(Salamon's perspective)

Now all three of them stood at the edge of the cliff. "Kari!" There was a sudden flash of purple light, and it was suspended in the air. A human figure formed in the middle of it. It was Kari. TK stopped shouting. "It's her!" he exclaimed.

"TK!" Kari reached her arms out to him, as if begging him to pull her back from wherever she was. TK jumped off of the ledge and seemed to be pulled into the light with her. Tokomon jumped after him. Salamon stared. "Oh, what the heck, as Gatomon I have nine lives. Let's hope that applies while I'm in this form." She jumped and was also pulled into the light.

They went through a portal similar to the one they went through when they went to the Digital World, but the colors were darker. They came out of the portal and landed in a heap. Salamon did a mental check to make sure that she wasn't injured from the fall. She felt different. She looked down at her paws. "Hey, I'm Gatomon again!" Tokomon- or, Patamon, now- looked down at himself. "Hey, I changed, too!"

TK turned to the two Digimon. "That usually happens when we go to the Digital World. I wonder if the two worlds are connected somehow…"

They all stood on wobbly legs- or wings, in Patamon's case. "TK," Gatomon said. "Promise me that we will never do that again."

TK didn't have time to speak before a familiar voice called out to them. "TK! Gatomon!"

They looked down at the beach below them. "There she is!" TK exclaimed, relief evident in his voice.

Kari waved. "Hey, guys! I'm right down here!"

TK called back down to her. "Stay there! We'll be down there in just a minute!"

Something screeched. A flying monster flew towards them. TK turned to Patamon. "Time to rock, Patamon!"

Patamon nodded. "Right!" He flew up into the air. TK called out, "DigiArmor energize!"

"Patamon Armor Digivolve to… Pegasusmon! Flying hope!"

TK jumped on Pegasusmon's back and they tried to get the monster away from the beach. The monster shot balls of dark energy at them, and they barely managed to dodge them. TK grabbed onto Pegasusmon tighter. "That was too close!"

Gatomon jumped off the cliff and ran over to where Kari was, near several Scubamon. "Kari! I have to Armor Digivolve right now!"

Kari looked at her with sad eyes. "But… I don't have my D-Terminal."

Gatomon remembered seeing Kari's backpack drop to the ground right after she disappeared. "We're toast…" she gulped. She turned to see Pegasusmon and TK flying over the ocean with the other monster hot on their tails. "I don't now how much longer they can last!"

They barely dodged another ball of dark energy. She could see dark light coming from the lighthouse and gasped. Gatomon ran back up to the cliff, and jumped onto Pegasusmon's back just as he flew by. TK grabbed onto her to keep her from falling. She pointed behind them. "Pegasusmon! The control spire! You've got to take it down! Then I can Digivolve!"

Pegasusmon circled around and flew back to the lighthouse. "Here goes nothing!"

TK shouted, "Full blast, Pegasusmon!"

"Equus Beam!" The green beam shot out from his helmet and struck the lighthouse, shattering the exterior and revealing a control spire as it fell. A pink beam of light shot out from the sky and Gatomon jumped off of Pegasusmon, into the light.

"Gatomon Digivolve to…" She felt her body morph. Her legs grew longer, her ears shrunk and were replaced by long hair, her gloves fell off and human hands replaced her paws, her tail disappeared, wings grew on her back, and a helmet covered her eyes. "Angewomon!"

"Angewomon!" Kari shouted happily from the beach.

Pegasusmon flew back around. "Equus Beam!" The green beam hit the dark monster on its underside, sending it flying in Angewomon's direction.

"Heaven's Charm!" The pink beams shot outwards from her hands, striking the evil Digimon and making it dissolve into data.

"Nice job!" TK shouted. He smiled and turned back with Pegasusmon to the beach.

(Kari's perspective)

"Angewomon!" Kari shouted as the angel Digimon flew closer to the beach. "You've got the help them," she said, pointing to the Scubamon. A pink beam of light flew from Angewomon's hands and struck the dark spirals on their arms. The Scubamon's eyes turned to a normal color. Kari smiled, then frowned as a dark aura surrounded the Scubamon.

The Scubamon grew taller, their eyes shrunk to the size of peas, and their bodies seemed to be less physical. (A/N: for lack of a better word) More like their bodies were turning into a fog of some sort.

"Much better," one of the creatures said.

"Wait a minute," Kari said, growing more worried. TK and Pegasusmon were still on the other side of the beach, so she and Angewomon were alone in this. "You asked for my help and I gave it to you. Now what do you want?" She took several steps back. One of the creatures grabbed her arm. She screamed and tried to pull away.

"Let go of her!" She heard TK shout from behind her.

The creature ignored him as he kept running towards them. "Come with us, child," it said. Its grip on Kari's arm got tighter. "You will be our new queen. We need you."

She tried even harder to free herself from its grip, but it had her too tight. "I trusted you guys and you lied to me!" she shouted. A beam of light shot the space between her and the creature, allowing her to pull away while it was momentarily distracted. Angewomon was shooting death glares at the creatures.

The creatures backed away into the ocean. "But we thought you would love to be our queen… With your powers, you could lead us in a battle against our undersea master… But I guess we were wrong… Beware, child, our master can sense your power, too… And he will come for you…" They disappeared into the ocean with that.

Kari shuddered and hung her head. "I'm ready to go home now," she whispered.

TK set a gentle hand on her shoulder. "It could be worse. We could be scraping gum off desks at school."

Kari smiled at her friend's attempt to cheer her up.

"Last one home is a rotten DigiEgg!" TK shouted as they flew upwards into the pink light that was still there from when Angewomon Digivolved.

They all laughed. "Hey, TK," Kari asked.

"Yeah?"

"Remember this morning when you said you really cared for me?" She thought she could see a blush forming in his cheeks as he nodded; not that it mattered, because she was sure she was blushing, too. "Well, I really care for you, too."

They shared a glance and smiled. _Maybe he does care about me like that… Maybe Yolei was right. Maybe it was a misunderstanding._

* * *

Yay! Kari's considering other options! :) What will happen next chapter? You just have to wait and see! (I do too... I haven't finished the next chapter yet ;D) Oh, and if it seems that there are random scenes (Ex.: Davis in the computer lab), there is a meaning for those. But I'll tie that stuff into later chapters. :)

If you want me to write faster, **review! **You people are my motivation! So press the shiny button right there! :)


	8. Taking Action

AngelOfLight04: It's been almost 2 weeks since I've updated! D: Nooo! Well, I guess you can blame my other Taiora for that. (Yes, I wrote another Taiora. Hehehe) Plus, I wrote basically _nothing_ yesterday because I went snow tubing with my friends. :) So, I finished it just now and I'm ready for some reviews on this chapter!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own any of the characters... Except Chase. He's MINE! MWAHAHA *cough hack cough*

Oh, and from this chapter on, everyone is two years older. If you don't know their ages, go back a few chapters and look for the ages I posted and do the math. :)

Chapter 8

**(Kari's perspective)**

"He's going to ask you out, you know."

Kari looked up. "Huh?" she asked. She had no idea what her friend was talking about. _That girl makes no sense sometimes,_ she thought.

The other girl dunked the brush into the bottle of nail polish. "You heard me. He's going to ask you out. Tonight."

Kari shook her head. "Yolei, I have no idea who you're talking about. And why he would want to ask me out in the first place?" She asked as she watched Yolei apply the hot pink paint to Kari's fingernails.

"Kari, seriously," Yolei said. "Don't act like you don't know who I'm talking about. The guy you have been crazy about for the past two years! TK's going to ask you out tonight!"

"We've talked about this before, Yolei. He doesn't like me like that. I know he doesn't."

"Just because he went on one date with one bratty girl doesn't mean that he wouldn't go on a date with you now."

Kari furrowed her brow. "If he did like me in _that way _then he wouldn't be acting so different towards me since he went on that date two years ago with Sukeira."

Yolei huffed in frustration as she switched to Kari's other hand. "That's exactly my point: it was two years ago! Feelings can change over time, Kari, my darling. It did for Ken and me. And, besides, we don't even know that he actually went on that date."

Kari smirked. "I swear, I had never seen you so happy before Ken asked you out." She ignored the last art of Yolei's comment.

"Well, I wasn't so happy all the time when we first met. We still referred to Ken as the 'Digimon Emperor' for a while, thinking he was a big jerk, and even after he joined the Digidestined, there was some tension between us. But, like I said, feelings changed over time… Oh, and TK doesn't _like_ you. He _loves_ you. He always did and he always will. And the only reason you _think_ he's been acting so different towards you–"

"He _has_ been acting different." Kari cut her off. But Yolei cut back in.

"-Is because you've been telling yourself that he doesn't love you. Really, he's been the same old TK. Tell me, Kari, when TK saved you from the Dark Ocean, why did he go after you?"

Kari looked at her strangely. "We're best friends. We promised each other when we were eight years old that we would be there when we needed the other. I needed him to help me, and that's what he did. TK's not the type of person to back down on a promise."

"I have a strong feeling that he did it because he's in love with you, not because of some promise you two made when you were little kids."

Kari pondered what her friend was saying. She was right… about everything. She stared at her pink nails. "Wow, Yolei. You really know how to make me reconsider the possibilities."

Yolei shrugged. "What are friends for?" She smiled in victory. "He's going to ask you out tonight! I know it!" She pointed the brush at Kari as she said the last few words, and a blob of nail polish flew off of it and hit Kari square on the nose.

Kari sat there in shock. When she realized what had happened she said calmly, "Yolei, I'm going to kill you."

Yolei placed the bottle on the table beside her. "I'm so sorry! I didn't know that the nail polish would fly off the brush!"

Kari grinned evilly. "Sorry doesn't cut it." She picked up the bottle of dark blue polish, which she had used earlier on Yolei's nails, and twisted the top off.

Yolei tried to back away, but from her position on her family's couch, she couldn't go anywhere. Kari dabbed a blob of nail polish onto the tip of Yolei's nose and laughed at the look on Yolei's face. "I can't believe you did that, Kari!" Yolei exclaimed, trying to hold in her laughter but to no avail.

They both laughed at each other, holding their sides for who knew how long. When they regained their composure, they headed for the bathroom to wash the paint off of their noses. They each took a damp washcloth and starting scrubbing at their noses. After Kari's nose started turning red from scrubbing, she took the washcloth off of her face and looked in the mirror only to find that the tip of her nose was stained hot pink and very noticeable.

"Um… Yolei?"

"Yeah?" Yolei looked into the mirror and saw Kari's face. Her eyes locked on her best friend's pink nose. "Oh, no…" She pulled the washcloth away from her own face and her eyes widened in horror. "Crap!"

Kari's eyes stayed glued to the mirror. "So this is what you meant when you said that it wouldn't come off easily."

"Not exactly," Yolei said. "I was referring to how it doesn't chip or fade easily. But I guess this situation qualifies." She paused then said, "Um, what time does the basketball game start?"

"Five o'clock. Why?" Kari tore her gaze away from the mirror.

Yolei groaned. "We're not going to have enough time to get this off. My mom has this recipe for getting things like this off of your skin but it takes a long time to make and we won't have enough time to make it since it's already…" She looked at the clock in the hallway. "Four twenty-five. We should be leaving in about ten minutes."

Kari sighed. "Then I guess we have to go like this…" She grinned. "Imagine the looks on our friends' faces when they see us!"

Yolei laughed. "Yeah, that ought to be amusing." They rushed to get ready to leave for the basketball game and left the apartment, jackets and purses in hand, cell phones in pockets, and nail polish-stained noses.

Kari and Yolei entered the school gym behind a large group of people. Indistinct chattering immediately reached their ears. They found four open seats on the bleachers and they each sat in one, putting their purses on the other two to save them for their friends.

They each laughed at every person that looked at them strangely. If this was how strangers were reacting, there was no telling how their friends would react. Kari spied Ken and Cody enter the gym amongst a crowd and waved them over. When Ken spotted her pink nose, he raised his eyebrows in question. Cody did the same and said, "I'm not even going to ask. I'm assuming that Yolei started it and you got her back?"

Yolei huffed. "Well, for your information…" She paused, then huffed again. "Darn. You're right…"

Ken, Kari, and Cody laughed at her. Ken took the seat beside Yolei and Cody sat next to Kari.

At that moment, several cheerleaders ran out to the court and the basketball team ran out behind them. The captain and co-captain were introduced. "Odaiba High's captain, Takeru Takaishi, and co-captain Chase Suzuki."

Many people stood up and cheered, but Yolei, Kari, Ken and Cody were the loudest of them all. They each shouted something along the lines of, "Go TK and Chase!" or "Come on, kick those guys' butts!" or "Take them down!". When TK's eyes fell on Yolei and Kari, he gave them a questioning glance. He pointed at his nose. Yolei and Kari burst out laughing. TK just shook his head and continued to the center of the court.

Every sound in the gym disappeared and every eye was on TK and the opposing captain. The referee blew the whistle and tossed the basketball in the air. TK took it and dribbled it down the court. The noise returned and the only sounds were of people cheering and the squeaking shoes of the basketball players. TK passed it to a teammate, who passed it to Chase, who passed it back to TK, and he shot the ball into the hoop with ease.

This went on for the whole game, and Odaiba High won, 52 to 36. The cheers erupted again and people exited the bleachers to congratulate the team. The cheerleaders crowded around the basketball players and several of them tried to break away from the crowds. TK and Chase were some of those players. When they escaped, they made a beeline for the water bottles waiting for them.

"You know, Kari," Yolei pointed out. "I still don't understand why you quit cheerleading; you could be one of those cheerleaders down there right now! And you could be down there with _TK…" _She stretched out each letter of his name.

Kari blushed furiously. "You know why, Yolei… But, you know, I might go back to it. I kind of miss being a cheerleader." This caused Yolei to laugh. She knew _exactly_ why Kari had quit and also why she wanted to go back, but those were for completely different reasons.

Kari, Yolei, Ken and Cody met TK and Chase aside from the rest of the team. TK had finished more than half of the water he had been given when they got there.

"You guys were amazing!" Cody exclaimed.

"Thanks," TK and Chase said together. TK threw the empty water bottle away and smiled at his friends. His smile dissolved when they all heard the annoying voice that seemed to follow him everywhere.

"Teeee-kaaaay!"

"Better come up with a quick excuse, TL," Davis said, catching everyone off guard since they hadn't noticed him walk up moments before.

Sukeira, the girl that Kari hated, wore an irritating grin as she walked up to the group. Kari glared daggers at Sukeira; _she_ was the reason she had quit cheerleading. Sukeira seemed determined to make Kari look bad in front of everyone.

"Uh, hi, Sukeira…" TK stammered, trying to come up with a quick excuse. "Uh, this is a bad time to talk… You see, um, my mom just called… and uh, she wants me to get home right away…"

Sukeira cocked her head to the side. "Really? I didn't see your phone out…"

TK's face flushed. "Um… She called Kari and told her to tell me!" He blurted.

Sukeira just then noticed the other teens standing there. She glared at Kari. "Oh, really?" she said, slightly peeved.

Kari was still shocked from hearing TK bring her into this, but she didn't blame him. TK wore a look that said, 'Please play along!' Kari nodded. "Yeah, she did. You got a problem with that, Sukeira?"

Sukeira took a step back. Kari could tell that she was trying not to lose her temper in front of TK. "No, not at all." She feigned innocence. "I'll just talk to you later, TK. See ya!" She turned and ran off.

TK heaved a sigh of relief. "Thanks," he muttered. He glanced over to where Sukeira had run off to. "I should probably get out of here, or she will start hounding me and asking why I'm not at home like I told her I would be. Call me and we'll get together and hang out," He told them before heading to the locker rooms to shower and change out of his uniform.

They stayed and talked with Davis and Chase for a few minutes before heading for the park, their unofficial meeting place for the Digidestined. Ken called TK on his cell phone on the way there, telling him where they were meeting. TK said that he would tell Chase and Davis where they would be while trying to dodge Sukeira.

While Ken was on the phone, Kari, Yolei, and Cody were all thinking about the things that had happened and how everyone had changed in the two years since the defeat of MaloMyotismon.

Cody had gotten quite a bit taller since their adventures in the Digital World; he was now about as tall as Kari. He was still practicing kendo with his grandfather, though it seemed that the old man's age was catching up with him. They were worried that he might not stick around much longer.

Yolei hadn't changed much. Except for getting her hair cut to about shoulder-length, she hadn't changed a bit. She was still occasionally working at her family's convenience store, and she still had her same old stubborn personality. Her crush on Ken hadn't changed, and Ken had started showing his own feelings for her. He had even asked her to go on a date with him that weekend.

Davis was still a bit possessive of Kari. He and TK were close friends nowadays, but he still purposely messed up his name to get on his nerves, though it had become more of a joke instead of an annoyance. His strong suit was still soccer yet he continued to play basketball.

Chase had become part of the Digidestined team the year after the defeat of MaloMyotismon. Since that battle, they were informed that people all over the world would soon start having their own Digimon partners, though Chase was the first yet. His DigiEgg had come out of the computer one day, along with a D-3, while doing a report and had soon hatched into a Sunmon. Gennai had told them later that not everyone would receive a Digivice like Chase had, therefore making him a Digidestined.

Ken was still ridiculously smart and still incredible at soccer. After joining with the other Digidestined, he had learned how to get rid of his guilt from being the Digimon Emperor with the help of his new friends. He still had a calm attitude about everything and somehow managed to bring out the best of a bad situation. Without him, there was no telling where the newer group of Digidestined would be now.

TK was the team captain for the basketball team at Odaiba High. Though he enjoyed basketball, he had taken a great interest in writing. Kari had seen a few of his works, and she had thought that they were absolutely amazing, though he always shrugged it off and said, "It's nothing special."

As for the older Digidestined, not much had changed. Joe was still in med school. Izzy was still a computer genius. Tai and Sora were still dating, and they still played their own sports. Matt was still the main singer in his band, but he was talking about quitting once he started college. Mimi was in the process of moving back to Odaiba. She had somehow managed to convince her parents that Odaiba was just as safe as America after all of the Digimon incidents.

And Kari, she was still interested in photography. Her hair had grown out and now reached to just above her collarbone. She still hadn't given up on TK, even after he went on that date with Sukeira. As Kari had told Yolei earlier, she had quit cheerleading for one reason: Sukeira harassed Kari to no end. But Kari wanted to go back to cheerleading for one reason: to get to see TK more. He had been so busy with basketball recently that they hadn't been able to talk much recently.

"Hello! Earth to Kari!" Yolei waved a hand in front of Kari's eyes.

Kari shook her head and realized that they had arrived at the park. Yolei smirked. "Daydreaming about TK again?"

Kari blushed. "Why must you always assume that I'm daydreaming about him?"

"Because you are," Yolei retorted.

Ken nodded as he hung up with his mother, letting her know where he was. "She has a point. It's a wonder that TK hasn't figured it out yet that you're in love with him."

They sat down at the base of a tree. Kari sighed and leaned her head against the tree. She looked toward the park entrance, waiting for TK, Davis, and Chase.

**(Yolei's perspective)**

Yolei took this chance while Kari wasn't looking to get a message across to Cody and Ken. "We need to talk after she leaves." She mouthed the words.

"Hey, guys!" They heard Davis shout. They looked away from each other and waved to the other guys coming their way.

"What's up?" Chase asked as he sat next to Cody. Davis sat next to him, and TK sat between Kari and Davis.

Cody shrugged. "Not much. Things have been pretty quiet recently since we haven't been spending as much time together like we used to."

TK rolled his eyes. "Yeah. Blame it on our new basketball coach. He's insane with all of these practices he keeps scheduling."

"Good thing basketball season is almost over," Davis went on. "Then we can go to the Digital World more often and just hang out now that there's nothing threatening it anymore."

They all agreed, wishing for a relaxing day in the Digiworld without any worries. "Speaking of the Digiworld," Kari said. "When are the Digimon coming back?"

"The last time I checked with Wormmon," Ken started. "They were going to be back next Saturday… That is, if they can keep Sunmon from burning down the whole area they're staying in. If he does, they'll be returning sooner."

The group shared a laugh. Sunmon was known for spitting out balls of fire when he got excited or upset, and things tended to get out of hand when he tried to start a fire in the fireplace at Chase's apartment. But, he was getting better at keeping it under control; they had to give him credit for that.

They went on for a while, retelling their adventures to Chase. Of course, he had heard them all dozens of times, but he never got tired of hearing them, and they never got tired of telling the stories.

"It was my brilliant idea to go to the Dark Ocean to save Kari," Davis lied.

"Oh, really?" Yolei asked, though she very well knew that he was lying. "Because when TK came back with Kari, I recall that you were still trying to get the Digiport to open on the computer."

Davis stammered. "Uh, yeah… Well, I uh, you know… When TK didn't come back with Kari after a while, I decided to… uh, try to open the Digiport again."

They stared at Davis dumbfounded. "What?" he asked.

"You got my name right!" TK exclaimed. "That's the first time you have ever gotten it right!"

Davis slapped his forehead. "Dang it! I meant to say… TA! Or… JC! Anything but TK! Darn! I ruined my record!"

They broke out into laughter, and Davis joined in after a moment or two. Kari's D-Terminal beeped and she grimaced.

"Kari, I swear, you get more e-mails and texts than anyone I know," Yolei said.

Kari stood and brushed the dirt and grass off the back of her jeans. "I have to go. Mom wants me to help her set up a party for my cousin that's getting married."

Yolei waved to her friend. "Okay. We'll see you later, Kars."

Kari waved and turned to leave but stopped when she heard the all-too-familiar voice of Sukeira. "Teeee-kaaaay!" they heard her call. _Gees, does that freak ever give up? _Yolei thought.

TK stiffened. Kari spun back around and pointed to the branches above TK's head. "Quick! I'll cover for you; just hide! And you owe me big for all of these cover-ups I'm doing for you!"

Without a word, TK scrambled up the tree and sat in one of the highest branches. If you didn't know that TK had been told to go up there, you wouldn't have known anyone was in there at all. Kari turned back around and starting walking, pretending to be looking at something in the distance while looking out of the corner of her eye to see where Sukeira was and purposely bumping into the other girl.

"Watch where you're going, Kamiya!" Sukeira snapped.

"Well, excuse me," Kari retorted sarcastically. "I apologize for not watching where I was going."

Sukeira huffed. "Whatever. Just tell me where he is. I know he didn't go home like he told me he was."

Kari pointed in the opposite direction of the park entrance. "He just now left. And he only came here because he left something at my house last week and I never got the chance to give it back to him."

Sukeira scowled at Kari and walked off in the direction of TK's home. After a few moments, when they were sure that Sukeira was long gone, TK came down from the tree. "Man, it was a lot easier climbing this tree when I was eight. And I swear that the branches were sturdier back then, too."

Kari smiled and waved again. "I should get going now. I'll see you guys later!" She turned, and without another word, left the park.

TK also prepared to leave. "I should go, too, just in case Sukeira comes back. See ya!" Then, he also left the park, leaving only Cody, Ken, Chase, Davis and Yolei.

"Okay, so we need to think of a way to get TK and Kari together," Yolei said as soon as TK was out of earshot.

"What? No way!" Davis protested.

The others ignored his protests. "We could set up a dinner for just the two of them," Chase suggested. "We could tell them to meet us at a restaurant, and then cancel at the last minute, leaving them alone."

"Or you could do that for me and Kari!" Davis butted in. Again, the others ignored him.

"Good plan, but they might suspect something if we all canceled," Cody said. "Maybe we should ask the older Digidestined about this. We could all work together to come up with a spectacular plan."

Yolei nodded and pulled her cell phone from her purse. "I'll call Sora. Since she's with Tai most of the time, we could get his approval and set up a meeting time." She dialed the familiar number and waited through three rings before the line picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Sora."

"Oh, hi, Yolei! What's up?"

"I was wondering if you could help us with something…"

"Okay… But who's 'us?"

"Ken, Chase, Davis, Cody, and I, but honestly Davis doesn't want anything to do with this so I guess you could count him out of this."

Sora gave a small laugh. "Okay, so what's this you want help with?"

"Well, we want to set TK and Kari up. You know, like on a date."

"Funny, I was just discussing that with Tai when you called. We were about to call you and see if you guys could meet us tomorrow for a Digidestined meeting concerning them."

Yolei laughed at the coincidence. "Great minds think alike. I was going to ask you the same thing. But, yeah, we'll be here. All of us." She glared at Davis, implying that he had better show up. "Is one o'clock a good time?"

"Sounds good. I'll call the others. Mimi should be there tomorrow. She's moving into her new home this week, so she's in town. I'll see you tomorrow!"

"Bye, Sora." Yolei slapped the phone closed. "Everyone meet back here tomorrow for a Digidestined meeting. That includes you, Davis. I will strangle you if you don't show up."

Davis grunted in reply.

Tai pulled on his shoes. "Mom, I'm leaving!" he called.

Kari poked her head out of the doorway of the kitchen. "Where are you going?"

Tai grabbed his keys and cell phone and put them in his pocket. "Going to Matt's place, and then going to the park to play soccer with Davis." It wasn't a lie; he really was going to Matt's house, but he was picking him up so they could meet the others at the park. And he really was going to play soccer with Davis… after their meeting about TK and Kari. He waved to Kari and made his way to the parking lot.

He tried to come up with a plan to set TK and Kari up as he drove to Matt's apartment building. He was so lost in thought that he almost drove right past it. Matt was already waiting outside when pulled into the parking lot and Tai had barely stopped the car when he jumped in.

"Thanks for picking me up, buddy," Matt said as they drove to the park. "I would normally drive, but my car is in the shop."

Tai shrugged. "No problem," he said, not taking his eyes off the road. "As long as everyone shows up for our meeting, I don't care if I have to make multiple trips to pick everyone up and bring them to the park."

Matt nodded. "So, you got any ideas for how we're gonna set our siblings up?"

"None, unfortunately." Tai parked in the parking lot of a restaurant across the street from the park. "Hopefully, someone else has a good idea."

Everyone was waiting for them by the small pond when they arrived. Tai noticed that Matt stared at Mimi for a moment. Mimi flashed a smile at the two as they approached. She jumped up and hugged them both, squeezing them with death grips. "It's so good to see you guys again!" she squealed.

They chuckled and Mimi let go of them, sitting down again next to Yolei.

"Hey, guys," Joe greeted, looking up from a notebook. "What's this meeting about? I have a test to study for…"

Matt rolled his eyes. "Joe, you have all weekend to study. Just take a break… And Izzy, put up your laptop. We have some things to discuss."

Joe closed the notebook and Izzy reluctantly closed his laptop. "Alright, but you still haven't answered Joe's question as to what this meeting is about," Izzy stated. "And where's TK and Kari? Shouldn't they be with you guys?"

Tai sat down and leaned back on his elbows. "Well, they are the reason for this meeting."

"You guys know that I don't approve of this meeting right?" Davis spoke up.

"No one asked for your approval!" Yolei snapped. Tai shook his head. _And they're at it again._ The rest of the group watched as Yolei shot Davis a death glare, making him shut up.

"Uh, right…" Tai started. "Anyway, the purpose of this meeting is to set TK and Kari up on a date and, hopefully, get them to confess their feelings for each other.

"Or set the stage for that, at the very least," Sora added.

"Right," Tai agreed. "So, we got the whole group- minus TK and Kari- together to come up with a good plan.

Mimi donned a huge grin. "I knew this would happen eventually! Those two are meant for each other!"

Davis groaned. Everyone ignored his complaining and Matt went on, "So does anybody have ideas?"

It was quiet for a moment. "Well, I suggested to Yolei, Ken, Davis and Cody last night that we could send them to a restaurant and say that we will be there later, but never show up, leaving them alone for the night," Chase said. "But they might suspect something."

Izzy rested his chin in his hand. "That is a good plan, but they will more than likely suspect something is up when all of us cancel at the last minute."

It was silent again, until Mimi spoke up. "Horror movie," she said.

Everyone looked at her strangely. "Say what? What about a horror movie?" Cody asked.

"Simple," Mimi started. "We set TK and Kari up to go the movies, somehow or another, and when they get freaked out in the scary movie, Kari will most likely hold onto TK, and… we can hope things go alright."

Tai nodded. "That sounds good. I like that plan. Now we need volunteers to get the two of them to get them to go."

Ken and Yolei shared a look and they both raised their hands. "We volunteer," Ken said. "I'll ask TK to go with me to the movies, Yolei will do the same with Kari, we go to the movie theatre at the same time, 'coincidentally' run into each other and go to the same movie."

Matt nodded. "Sounds good. What scary movies are in the theatre?"

"_Paranormal Activity_," Sora said. "I heard it's really freaky. Mimi's plan might just work."

"But what if it doesn't?" Davis asked, sounding hopeful.

"Then we come up with a new plan," Izzy stated matter-of-factly. "Simple as that."

"It's all set then," Tai said. "Ken and Yolei will take them to the movies soon, and we just wait for them to confess."

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I feel like it wasn't that great, since it's basically just introducing stuff.

A/N: Okay, I couldn't think of any good Japanese names for Chase, so I just went on a website and chose the first Japanese name that started with 'ch'. Oh, and I know nothing about basketball, so sorry if the basketball game part was really crappy.

That's all for now! Please leave a **review!**


	9. Phase Number One

AngelofLight04: Let me just start by saying that I am so incredibly mad at myself right now. I can't believe that it took me over a month to write this! And my longest chapter only took me a week and a half! Grr!! I swear, that wall over there *points to wall* has "Bang head here!" written all over it... *restrains herself from banging head on wall* This WOULD have been up sooner if I hadn't written myself into a nice little corner several times... I promise that the next one won't take so long! But this month has also been really busy for me. I had testing last week and before that I had friends over at my house basically all week for my birthday, so that is also an excuse for not having this up sooner. ;)

Oh, and, to me, it seems that I've been a little mean to Davis. Weeeellll, I said in the first chapter that there is Davis-bashing... but I just feel like I've been mean to him. Don't worry, I've got a good plan for him. :)

Just a warning, but there are quite a few perspective changes in this chapter.

**Disclaimer: How many times do I have to say it? I don't own Digimon. Hmm... Daddy, can I buy Digimon?... No?... Well, can I take over the world and _then_ buy Digimon?... Why not?!... Oh, I would already have it wouldn't I? But... I would get distracted by something shiny? That's not... Darn it, you're right!!!**

Chapter 9

Yolei tapped her eraser on her textbook impatiently. _Come on, come on, come on…_ she chanted silently. _I have to catch Kari before she goes to cheer tryouts. (*)_ She looked over to where Ken sat two rows over. He looked pretty impatient, too. As soon as the last bell rang, Yolei was going to find Kari and Ken was going to find TK to make plans for that weekend. Yolei glanced at the clock. Five minutes hadn't passed between the last time she checked and now, though it felt as if hours had passed. _Why do we need to learn about the water cycle and molecules and animal relations and such if the majority of us aren't going to be scientists? _Yolei thought as the teacher droned on about predator-prey relationships. _It's pointless and boring._

Finally, the last bell rang. Yolei stuffed her book into her backpack and headed for the door, where Ken was waiting for her. They walked down the hall together for a few minutes in silence before they came to the hallway where TK's locker was. "Call me when you find out if Kari can go to the movies," Kan said. "If one of them can't go, then our plan fails and we can't get them together."

Yolei nodded. "Will do. See you later!" She continued down the hall, dodging students along the way. She came to Kari's locker just in time to see her reset the lock. _Good. She hasn't left yet._

"Hey, Kars," Yolei greeted.

Kari looked up and smiled. "Hey, Yolei. What's up?"

"Not much. I was wondering if you were busy this weekend."

"No, I think I'm free. Why?"

"You want to see a movie? It's been awhile since we've gone to see a good movie and there are some interesting-looking ones out."

"Sure. What movie?"

Yolei shrugged. "I was thinking about _Paranormal Activity_," she said nonchalantly.

Kari raised her eyebrows. "A horror movie? Yolei, you know how scared I get in those…"

"I know, and I do too. I'm sure that there are a ton of other girls like us who freak out in scary movies. It's no big deal. Remember, it's only a movie."

Kari hesitated. "Okay…" she said.

Yolei grinned. "Awesome! Saturday at seven?"

"Sounds good. I'll come by your house since it's closer the theatre than mine is."

"Great! See you later! Break a leg at cheer tryouts!" Yolei called over her shoulder as they parted ways. Once outside the school building, she pulled her cell phone from her purse and dialed Ken's number, looking around to make sure that neither TK nor Kari was around.

"Hello?" came the voice on the other line.

"Hey, Ken," she greeted, looking around once more. "Kari's free and I told her Saturday at seven."

"Great. TK's meeting me at the same time on Saturday as you and Kari are. So far, so good."

"Now, we just need to work on our acting skills so they don't suspect something when we 'coincidentally' run into each other."

Ken gave a short laugh. "Yeah, we do, considering I'm not the best of actors."

"I hope everything works out for them. It's killing me that they're not together already. They're perfect for each other!"

"Me, too. I'm sure that we'll get them together somehow or another. I bet that by the end of the school year they'll be together, happier than they've ever been."

~*~*~*

The week dragged by for Yolei and Ken, as well as the rest of the Digidestined- minus Davis, who still wasn't very happy with the plan- as they not-so-patiently waited to hear about the events of Saturday night on Kari and TK's part. When the weekend finally rolled around, Yolei was more than happy to go home and prepare for setting TK and Kari up. Yolei had told Kari to be at her house by five o'clock on Saturday, giving them plenty of time to hang out before the movie.

Five o'clock Saturday evening, a knock sounded at the door and Yolei jumped up to answer it before one of her siblings did. "I got it!" she shouted over her shoulder. She swung the door open, finding Kari standing there in a tee shirt and jeans. _No ma'am. You are not going to the movies with TK sitting right next to you wearing _that. _Makeover time! _"Hey, Kars." She held the door open for her friend and led Kari to her bedroom.

Kari sat on the edge of the bed. Yolei smirked, seeing that Kari's nose was finally nail polish-free. "I see you got rid of the evidence of our mini nail polish war," she said, sitting next to the girl.

Kari laughed. "Yeah. It took nearly an hour but I got it off… well, Tai helped some, but he rubbed so hard that my nose is still raw, so I'm not sure if he actually helped me or harmed me."

Yolei shared the laugh, then nonchalantly examined Kari's outfit. "Hmm… I kind of feel like experimenting on outfits. You will be my mannequin, my dear Kari," she teased with a devious grin.

Kari feigned offense and set her hands on her hips. "Hey, is there something wrong with what I'm wearing?"

Yolei waved it off. "Not at all. Like I said, I feel like playing dress-up."

Kari rolled her eyes and allowed Yolei to give her opinion on certain outfits that they mixed and matched. They mixed up a few that majorly clashed and got a few laughs from them. Yolei remembered something from a few days ago and thrust her arm under the bed suddenly. _Of course! So what if her birthday isn't until June?_ She thought as she felt for a shopping bag. She pulled it up and pulled out the contents. "Well, Kari, I had planned on giving this to you for your birthday…"

"My birthday isn't for two months! It's April!"

"I know, I know, but I thought it was cute so I went ahead and bought it!"

Yolei held up a button-up red, black, and white checkered shirt and a denim pleated skirt. She walked over to the closet and grabbed a white tank top. "Try these on!"

A few minutes later, Kari walked out of the adjoining bathroom and examined herself in the full-length mirror. "I don't know, Yolei. Red isn't really my color… Plus, I kind of look like an American country girl…" She had left the shirt unbuttoned with the tank top under it and the skirt came down to about mid-thigh, and she had put on black flats. (A/N: I always thought that this type of outfit would look cute on one of my friends or someone like Kari ... Me, not so much...)

"Are you kidding, Kari? You may look like a country girl, but you're an _adorable_ country girl! And red is _so_ your color! It goes great with your eyes, since they have a bit of reddish tint. I think you should wear it to the movies tonight!" Yolei grabbed a silver necklace with a heart pendant on the long chain and draped it over Kari's neck. "Cute!" she squealed. _Next step: makeup._

Kari looked at herself in the mirror again, and, trusting her friend's judgment, agreed to wear it that night. Yolei went to the bathroom and came back a moment later with a makeup bag in hand. She motioned for Kari to sit on the bed. Kari hesitated, eyeing the bag. Yolei huffed. "Come on, don't be difficult. I swear you are going to be even more gorgeous than you already are when I'm finished with you. Now sit. I'm not going to do a lot, I promise, since you hate makeup so much, but just let me do it and you'll be amazed at what just a little can do." _You need to look impressive for TK!_

Kari reluctantly did as she was told. Yolei grinned in victory. She kept to her promise and only applied a little base, light blush, some eyeshadow, and a thin streak of eyeliner. "Beautiful!" Yolei exclaimed when she was done.

The brunette sighed in relief. "Thank goodness you didn't use that mascara crap. I hate that more than any other kind of makeup."

"You're eyelashes are dark and long enough; it's not necessary. Now, look in the mirror and tell me what you see!"

Kari stood and looked in the mirror. Her jaw dropped. Yolei was right; a little makeup can do wonders. Her eyes seemed bigger and the reddish tint to them was more noticeable, and her cheeks had a soft rosy hue. "That's… that's me?" she whispered.

"Mm-hmm. You should wear makeup more often, Kars. You look absolutely stunning."

"Whoa. I can hardly tell that it's me…"

"It's you, alright. You can bet that there will be ton of guys drooling over you tonight!" _Especially a certain blonde basketball player…_

Kari turned to Yolei. "Aren't you going to change into something else? I would feel out of place if I was in this nice outfit and you were wearing that." She pointed to Yolei's faded jeans and shirt that read, "I Only Date Ninjas". _Oh. Smart girl. I guess I should have thought of that,_ Yolei thought, then nodded and went for the closet, deciding on a white sleeveless v-neck top, sandals, and shorts. She spun around in front of Kari. The brunette giggled. "Very cute."(*)

Ten minutes later, they were walking out the door heading for the movies, only one of them knowing that they would be running into their two favorite guys upon arrival.

~*~*~*

Ken was sitting on a park bench, waiting for TK to show up. His cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He dug it out and looked at the screen, which said, "New text message from Yolei". He opened the message. _"On our way. Kari's looking nIcE. :)" _He smiled,knowing that Yolei probably did her magic in an attempt to impress TK when they saw each other. He quickly typed out a reply. _"Good. Hopefully that will push TK more to ask her out." _He looked up and saw TK walking in his direction. He added one more sentence to the text. _"See you in a few minutes, we're leaving the park now."_ He pressed 'send' and stood.

TK waved. "Hey, Ken. You ready?"

He nodded. "Whenever you are." As they left the park, Ken wondered if their plan would work. If it didn't, he was already concocting another plan that would hopefully work better than this.

They were waiting in line to buy tickets at the movie theatre when Ken spotted the two girls he was looking for. "Hey, Kari! Yolei!" He called to them. Yolei spun around in the direction of his voice and waved. Ken inspected Kari's outfit. The girls came over to where TK and Ken were standing and Ken whispered in Yolei's ear. "You were right. Kari does look nice. And I'm sure TK's not complaining."

Yolei smirked. "I bet," she whispered, then turned to TK. "Hey, TK. What movie are you guys seeing?" she asked, even though she knew very well what it was.

"_Paranormal Activity_," he said. "What about you?"

"We're seeing the same one," Kari said.

Ken nodded, going along with where this conversation was headed. "Why don't you two sit with us?" he suggested.

Yolei smiled. "Sure! Sounds great!"

Kari and TK stood in front of Ken and Yolei in line, leaving each pair to their own conversations. Ken spoke quietly so only Yolei could hear. "Who says you can't act?"

She smirked. "You weren't bad yourself." When they got their tickets, they turned and saw TK and Kari standing quite close to each other, their shoulders almost touching. They sent knowing glances at each other before following TK and Kari into the theatre. Almost all of the seats were taken, except for a few that were spread out. They found two pairs of seats, though they were a row apart. Ken and Yolei took the seats behind TK and Kari so they could keep an eye on their actions while watching the movie.

During the movie, Kari held onto TK's hand at parts and sometimes hid behind his shoulder. Ken watched the two the most, since Yolei was reacting the same way as Kari. When the movie ended, Kari was still holding onto TK's hand like he was a lifeline. TK didn't seem to notice that she had been grasping his hand throughout a good portion of the movie, and neither noticed that they were still holding hands when they left the theatre. Yolei and Ken smiled as they followed.

In the lobby of the theatre, Ken and Yolei searched the crowd for their friends, as they had been separated in the crowd. They found Kari and TK near the front door waiting, but they had let go of each other's hands. Yolei told Ken just before they caught up with the younger two, "I'm going to go to the restroom and let Sora know how it went." She was gone before Ken could say anything.

^*^*^*

(Yolei perspective)

Yolei rushed to the restroom before anyone could stop her and hoped that Kari wouldn't follow. She leaned against the wall near a sink and dialed Sora's number from memory. She waited through the dial tones, drumming her fingers on her thigh.

"Hello?"

"Sora, hey, it's Yolei. The movie just ended."

"Oh, how did it go?"

"Good, I think. Kari was holding TK's hand basically the whole time and was hiding behind his shoulder through some of it. I think I'll ask them to go to the new smoothie shop down the street and hopefully get them to confess somehow or another."

"Okay. Hold on just a sec," Sora said. Yolei could hear her relaying the information to someone, probably Mimi or Tai. She heard several voices in the background. "Um, Sora?"

"Yes?"

"Are all of the Digidestined with you?"

"Oh, yeah. We're at the park. Originally it was just Mimi and I, but eventually everyone called and asked what was going on, so then they all came over here to wait for news with us. Anyway, I'll head over to that smoothie shop that you were talking about with Tai and we'll give you guys some backup if you need it."

"That sounds great. See you in a few." Yolei headed out of the restroom, looking for Ken, Kari, and TK. They were where they had been a few minutes ago, waiting patiently. "Hey, sorry it took so long. I had to wait before I could wash my hands," she lied. "Why don't we go to that new smoothie shop down the street? A friend told me that they have some pretty good smoothies and milkshakes."

The other three nodded in agreement. Ken leaned closer to whisper in her ear again as they were walking out. "Nice. Maybe you can get Kari away for a few minutes and I can convince TK to ask her out."

"Tai and Sora are going to be there," she whispered back. "They're going to help us, so we can use them as an excuse for leaving."

The rest of the walk was silent for the most part. Ken and Yolei were trying to think of ways to get TK alone with Ken and then get TK and Kari by themselves. Kari and TK, Yolei imagined, were probably a little embarrassed that they had been holding hands throughout the movie, so they were keeping quiet. About six years ago it would have meant nothing more than a sign of friendship, but now it actually _meant_ something to anyone passing by.

Yolei thought she saw a streak of red hair and a bush of brown ahead. She looked more closely and saw that it was Tai and Sora waiting for the four others to enter the shop before they came closer than the street corner. Yolei hoped that she was the only one that had noticed. It appeared that she was the only one who did, since the only thing the others acknowledged was the menu behind the cash register as they walked in the small shop.

^*^*^

(Tai's perspective)

Tai peeked around the corner again. They were a little bit early; the park was closer to this new smoothie shop than the movie theatre was. He could see four teenagers walking down the street. He recognized three of them, but who was the fourth one? It looked like a girl, and she sort of resembled Kari… _Whoa, is that my sister?! She looks so… old, like she's eighteen instead of fourteen. _He quickly ducked away from the corner when Yolei spotted him. Sora also backed away from the corner of the brick building.

"You okay, Tai?" she asked. "You look a little pale."

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied. "But I can't believe that's my sister! She looks too old right now to be fourteen!"

Sora rolled her eyes and grinned. "Yolei's work, probably."

They looked around the corner again to see Ken walk into the shop behind the other three. They waited a few more minutes before walking the rest of the distance between the street corner and the shop. They walked in nonchalantly, acting as if they were on a date, finding that the four younger teens were seated at a booth already sipping at various flavored smoothies or milkshakes. Tai and Sora bought their own drinks and found a table on the other side of the shop, far enough away from the other four that they could look on without being suspected.

"Tai? Sora?" Kari asked as they passed by.

Tai turned around and flashed his signature grin. "Hey, Kar," he greeted. "I didn't know you would be here… And I didn't know you would be with TK and Ken. I thought you were just going to the movies with Yolei."

"It started out that way, but then we ran into Ken and TK. We ended up seeing the same movie," Yolei said.

"Was the movie good?" Sora asked.

"It was pretty good," Ken replied. "But I think I've gone deaf in one ear because of all the times Yolei screamed…"

They all laughed, except for Yolei, who stuck her tongue out at Ken.

"That's really mature, Yolei," TK said sarcastically.

"Oh, shut up…"

Tai waved and started towards the table he and Sora had chosen a few minutes ago. "We'll leave you alone, then."

He slid into a chair at the table and Sora sat across from him. "I didn't know you were such a good actor," Sora said.

"It's pretty much required that you can tell a good lie at my house… at least when it comes to my mom's cooking experiments that she wants us to try." Tai grimaced at the thought of his mother's 'inventions' as he twirled the straw in his milkshake.

Sora smiled. "Oh, come on. They aren't _that_ bad."

"You were lucky when she asked you to try… whatever it was. She didn't add some kind of unnecessary ingredient and it actually turned out somewhat decent. Most of the time she goes overboard and her food turns out tasting like crap… which is why Kari and I get up at midnight to go to a fast food restaurant close to home."

Sora shook her head at her boyfriend. Tai looked over at where the younger kids sat and groaned. "Kari looks so old right now…"

Sora turned around to look at the girl. "You are so pathetic. She looks beautiful, even if she does look a little bit older."

"A little?"

"Seriously, she doesn't look _that_ much older."

Tai whipped his cell phone out of his pocket. Sora tried to look at the screen from across the table. "What are you doing?"

"Texting Yolei," was the reply. He typed out a quick message. _Get over here. Now._

He pressed 'send' and looked up. Sora wore a smirk on her face. "Pathetic," was her only comment.

They both looked up to see Yolei pull a chair up beside them. "So, what's up, Tai?" she asked.

"What did you do to my sister?" he asked. Sora shook her head in dismay.

"What? She looks good! I think I did a pretty good job!"

"You did," Sora said. "But Tai doesn't want to admit it. He thinks she looks 'too old'." She drew quotation marks in the air with her fingers.

"Typical big brothers," Yolei added. "Anyway, how are we going to get TK and Kari together? I don't think this is exactly the perfect place for them to confess, but we can at least help them out."

It was silent for a moment, each lost in their own thoughts. "Isn't the end of the year school dance coming up?" Tai asked.

"Yeah," Sora replied. "I think that would be the perfect chance for them to confess."

"Yeah, it would," Yolei agreed. "But how are we going to get those two alone long enough for TK to ask Kari?"

"Maybe we should get Ken and TK alone at first so Ken could suggest that TK should take Kari to the dance." (A/N: That sentence just seems a little weird to me xD)

Yolei grabbed a napkin sitting on the table and dug a pen from her purse. She jotted down a note and stood. "I'll get Kari away from the table. Ken and I will come back over here." She turned without another word and sauntered over to the table where her friends sat.

^*^*^*

(Ken's perspective)

Ken was sitting across from TK and Kari, sipping at his milkshake. He felt something slide into his hand. He looked down and saw a folded white napkin, then looked up and saw Yolei standing by the table. "Hey, Kari," she said. "Come with me for a minute; I want to show you something."

Kari set down her smoothie on the table and stood. "Uh, okay."

Yolei caught Ken's attention before she walked off with Kari. "Open it," she mouthed, gesturing to his hand.

Ken unfolded the napkin and read the note scribbled on it. _Tell TK to ask Kari to the school dance._

He shoved it into his pocket. TK played with his straw. "So…" the blonde said.

"So… Hey, TK?"

"Yeah?"

"You know the school dance is coming up, right?"

TK nodded. Ken went on, "Well, are you going with anybody?"

"Nope, but a few girls have asked me. I told them all that I wasn't going."

Ken bit his lip. "Really? Why not?"

TK just shrugged. "Well, I just wanted to get them off my back; I'm not sure if I'll go or not."

"Maybe you should ask Kari."

TK remained silent. His face turned a deep shade of red. "Oh, come on, TK. I know you like her. Nothing to be embarrassed about. She's a nice girl, I can't blame you for liking her." (A/N: NO, Ken is not suggesting that he likes Kari! Ken and Yolei go together, and TK and Kari go! Not any other way!)

"… Yeah, you're right. I like her… a lot."

"So, you should ask her to the dance."

"Maybe I will."

"Yolei and I will leave while you ask her. _Tonight._"

The blonde sighed. "Okay, I guess that's alright."

Just then, Yolei and Kari came up behind them. Ken motioned to Sora and Tai's table, sending a silent message to Yolei, implying that they should leave.

"Oh, I left something at Sora and Tai's table," Yolei lied. "I'll be back." She turned on her heel and left.

"I'm going to ask Tai about some soccer gear. I'll be back in a few minutes." Ken also stood from the table and left, leaving TK and Kari alone.

^*^*^*

(Kari's perspective)

_Okay… something's up. _Her thoughts were interrupted when TK spoke up. "Uh, Kari?" He asked, a hint of nervousness in his voice.

"Yeah, TK?"

"Are you, uh, going to the school dance with anybody?"

Kari felt her stomach twist into a nervous knot. _Is he asking me to… go to the dance with him?_ "Well, Davis has been asking me since last month, before the dance was even announced…" The corners of TK's mouth quivered, as if those words had hurt him, but he quickly plastered on a smile again, though Kari still noticed. "But I told him that I was just going without a date."

"Oh, well, are you still planning on going alone?"

"I'm not sure. I just didn't want to go with Davis. Sure, he's a good friend, but I wouldn't be comfortable going with a guy who was overly obsessive."

TK chuckled. "I see what you mean."

Kari felt her face grow hot. "Uh, did you ask for any specific reason?"

The boy looked away. "Well… I was wondering…" He met her eyes again. "Would you like to go the dance with me?"

She felt her cheeks grow hotter than they already were. _He just asked me! But why? He could go with any girl in the school, girls a whole lot prettier than I am, but why would he choose me?_

She assumed that TK took her silence as a no. "It's alright if you don't want to…" he said.

Kari shook herself out of her trance. "No, no! I'd love to go with you." She smiled a reassuring smile.

TK returned the smile. "Great." Just then, his cell phone beeped. He dug it out of his pocket and grimaced. "Hey, sorry, but I gotta go. My mom is going to be wondering what happened to me if I don't get home soon."

"Okay, see you later!" She waved as he walked out of the shop. She looked around and saw Ken and Yolei talking with her brother and Sora. She walked over and joined them at the table. Tai was the first to notice her. "Hey, Kar," he greeted.

"Where did TK go?" Ken asked.

"He had to go home. He probably wouldn't hear the end of it from his mom if he didn't leave soon." She knew from experience how her mother reacted if she was just a little late, so she figured the same probably went for TK.

"So, we saw you and TK talking," Sora said. "Was it anything of importance?"

"Yeah, I'm going to the school dance with him."

Sora and Yolei grinned. "You know what that means, right?"

"Let me guess, you two are going shopping with me, correct?"

"You bet!" Yolei exclaimed.

Tai obviously couldn't decide if he should be happy for his sister or annoyed with TK for asking his sister to the dance. Kari snickered at her brother's expression. He shot her a glare before standing up.

^*^*^*

(Tai's perspective)

"Kari, do you want a ride home? I'm gonna drop Sora off at her place, but I can take you home on the way." Tai asked.

Kari nodded. "Yeah, sounds good."

Tai leaned over and spoke in a hushed tone while Sora and Kari made their way to Tai's car parked near the street corner. "Meet back at the park. Sora and I will be there as soon as we can." Ken nodded and turned in the other direction with Yolei following.

As soon as Tai was sure that Kari was inside their apartment, he turned his car back around and drove towards the park. They got there just as Ken and Yolei did, and the four made their way to their friends sitting on park benches or on the ground, but there were twice as many silhouettes than Tai remembered when he left.

"Tai!" Something landed in Tai's hands. He looked down to see two big reddish-brown eyes staring up at him and one of the widest grins he'd ever seen. "Koromon! Hey, little buddy! When did you guys get back?"

"Izzy pulled them through on his laptop just now," Mimi said, hugging Tanemon.

As soon as Ken, Yolei, and Sora sat down their Digimon partners hopped up into their laps and started telling stories of their trip to the Digital World. Salamon hopped over to Tai and put her paws on his knee. "Tai? Where's Kari?"

"I took her home, but I'll bring you home with me," he replied. The small Digimon seemed disappointed at first that her partner was not there, but she smiled anyway.

"So, how did the plan go?" Chase asked.

"What plan?" Sunmon asked. The little fireball was always asking questions, but that was what everyone loved about him.

"We're trying to get TK and Kari together," Matt said.

"Well, it's about time they did!" Tokomon exclaimed.

"Yeah, so how _did_ this plan go?" Salamon asked.

Ken smiled. "Phase number one is complete."

* * *

Author's notes!! Okay, 1) Cheerleading tryouts for the next year are usually held around April or May at my school, and I wasn't sure about other schools, so this is how I did it. 2) I saw an outfit that I liked on the rue21 website, and I could see Yolei wearing something like that (with longer shorts) so I decided to use it. Here's the link if you want a better description: ( h t t p : / / w w w . r u e 2 1 . c o m / t r e n d s / g i r l s / D e t a i l . a s p x ? i d = 1 )

Okay, well that's all for this chapter! :) Oh, and there will only be one or two chapters left (maybe three if I do an epilogue).

You may have noticed that I have started titling the chapters. I like them, if I do say so myself. :)

Oh, one last thing. I'm taking a poll! Someone suggested that I continue "Forever". (For those that don't know, that is a Taiora. Don't read if you're not a fan.) So, the poll question is "Should I continue Forever as a story itself, tie it in with a Takari, or both?" If you are not registered on you may post your vote in a review here or in "Forever", it matters not to me.

That's all, folks!


	10. Author's Note! Please Read!

**Author's Note! Please Read!**

First of all, I would like to apologize to everyone to whom I said that I would be updating the last couple of chapters of CO "soon". Obviously, that didn't happen, and I feel so terrible about it. But I have reasons, albeit not very good ones. (For example, I started reading a book that led to a series, which led to another series, which led to... You get it. And I simply lost my motivation.)

Second, I have decided to discontinue this story. *prepares for onslaught* But please hear me out! I would like to start this from the very beginning. Yes, I will be rewriting this and posting it, but as a different story. Will it have the same title? I don't know yet. My reasons for rewriting are:

1. To me, some of the characters or scenes later on in the story got to be a bit cliché or out of character. And that bothers me so much. Like a fly in the summer that will not stop buzzing around your ear while your trying to eat. I had to change that.

2. Some things I felt were not necessary for the plot, so I figured those should be thrown out altogether. Yes, some chapters will remain relatively unchanged, but others may be completely different.

3. I would like to stick more to the actual Digimon episode plots. For example: In CO, Tai and Sora are dating. Well, if right now you're thinking that I have turned to the dark side of Sorato, you are completely wrong, I'm happy to say. I'm still a die-hard Taiora and Takari fan, but I would like to cut out the Taiora in the very beginning and bring it in later.

4. I need to do something about my own character, known as Chase. I feel like he is unnecessary to the story and he should be thrown out. I feel like he is just _there, _not really doing anything, not really important. And I couldn't figure out what to do to make him significant. Sorry to everyone who liked him, but I thought it needed to be done.

5. I believe that my writing style has improved and I will be able to write better and make the story more "realistic" or "believable", for lack of better terms.

Now, my other two stories will not be rewritten. I think they're good enough. And yes, the poll is still up on my profile about whether or not "Forever" should be continued or not. So if you have not done so, please vote! I need people's opinions!

I think that is all for now. Please feel free to comment on this or send me a message with suggestions, comments, etc. and let me know what you think! Make sure to put me on your Author Alert for the new version!

_~AngelOfLight04_


End file.
